Camera module

ABSTRACT

A camera module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is proposed, the camera module including a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mounted with an image sensor, a housing member arranged at an upper surface of the PCB, a bobbin movably positioned at an inner side of the housing member, an upper elastic member connected to an upper surface of the housing member and to an upper surface of the bobbin, and a space forming part formed at one side of the housing member to provide a moving space to the upper elastic member when the bobbin makes a relatively vertical movement to the housing member.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation Application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/412,614, filed Jan. 23, 2017, which is aContinuation Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/588,479filed Jan. 2, 2015 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,591,191), which claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Application No. 10-2014-0000567, filedon Jan. 3, 2014, Korean Application No. 10-2014-0001796, filed on Jan.7, 2014, Korean Application No. 10-2014-0001802, filed on Jan. 7, 2014,Korean Application No. 10-2014-0001785, filed on Jan. 7, 2014, andKorean Application No. 10-2014-0001789, filed on Jan. 7, 2014, whoseentire disclosures are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

The teachings in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of thispresent disclosure generally relate to a camera module.

2. Background

Generally, a camera module may include an optical system formed with animage sensor, a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mounted with the imagesensor configured to transmit an electric signal, an IR (Infrared)cut-off filter configured to cut off light of infrared region and atleast one sheet of lens configured to transmit an image to the imagesensor. At this time, the optical system may be installed with anactuator module configured to perform an auto focusing function and ahand shake correction function.

The actuator module may be variably configured and generally uses a VCM(Voice Coil Motor). The VCM may perform an auto focusing function bybeing operated by an electrical interaction between a magnet fixed to aholder member and a coil unit wound on a periphery of a bobbinreciprocally installed at a lens barrel side. The actuator module of VCMmethod may be configured such that a vertically-moving bobbin isreciprocally moved to a direction parallel to an optical axis by beingelastically supported by bottom and upper elastic members.

The auto focusing function of the conventional VCM is performed by abobbin including a plural sheet of lenses being driven to one direction.That is, when electricity is applied, the bobbin is moved upwards froman initial position to perform a focusing operation, and the electricityis cut off during movement to an opposite direction to allow the bobbinto return to an original position by self-weight of the bobbin andelastic restoring force of the elastic members. However, in case of abi-directional driving actuator capable of performing more accuratefocusing control, a position of the bobbin suspended in a space is madean initial position, and when a conventional camera module structure isused as it is, there is required a structural change capable of solvingan interference of adjacent elements due to strokes of bobbin beingrelatively great.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments will be described in detail with reference to thefollowing drawings in which like reference numerals refer to likeelements wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a part of a camera moduleaccording to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a housing member of a cameramodule according to a first exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are schematic views illustrating movement of upperelastic member mounted at an upper side of the housing member accordingto a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7 to 11 are exemplary views illustrating various modified examplesof a camera module according to a first exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a cover member andan upper elastic member of a camera module according to a secondexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a perspective view illustrating an assembled state of FIG.13;

FIG. 15 is a rear perspective view illustrating an assembled state of ahousing member, an upper elastic member and a cover member of a cameramodule according to a second exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 16, 17 and 18 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member of a camera module according to a second exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 19 is a schematic view illustrating a coupled state of a covermember and an upper elastic member of a camera module according to amodified example of a second exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 20 is a schematic view illustrating a coupled state of a covermember and an upper elastic member of a camera module according toanother modified example of a second exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 21 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a third exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 22 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a spacer member andan upper elastic member of a camera module according to a thirdexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 23 is a perspective view illustrating an assembled state of FIG.22;

FIGS. 24, 25 and 26 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member of a camera module according to a third exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 27 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 28, 29 and 30 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member mounted at an upper side of a housing member of a cameramodule according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 31 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIGS. 32, 33 and 34 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member during movement of bobbin of a camera module according toa fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various exemplary embodiments will be described more fully hereinafterwith reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some exemplaryembodiments are shown.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure.Accordingly, in some embodiments, well-known processes, well-knowndevice structures and well-known techniques are not illustrated indetail to avoid unclear interpretation of the present disclosure. Thesame reference numbers will be used throughout the specification torefer to the same or like parts.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, A, B, (a),(b), etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, theseelements should not be limited by these terms in terms of substances,sequences or orders. These terms are only used to distinguish oneelement from another. It will be understood that when an element isreferred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it canbe directly connected or coupled to the other element or interveningelements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to asbeing “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element,there are no intervening elements present.

Hereinafter, a camera module according to a first exemplary embodimentof the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a part of a camera moduleaccording to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a housing member of a cameramodule according to a first exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure, FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are schematic views illustrating movementof upper elastic member mounted at an upper side of the housing memberaccording to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, andFIGS. 7 to 11 are exemplary views illustrating various modified examplesof a camera module according to a first exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1, a camera module according to a first exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure may include a PCB (10), a base(20), a bobbin (40), a housing member (50) and a cover member (60).Although the camera module may include a holder member (30) asillustrated in FIG. 1, the holder member may be omitted, if necessary.

Meantime, the camera module according to the first exemplary embodimentof the present disclosure may further include a space forming partconfigured to provide a moving space to an upper elastic member (44)when the bobbin (40) vertically moves relative to the housing member(50). Although the space forming part may be a support protrusion (70,described later), the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

The PCB (10) is mounted with an image sensor (11), and may form a floorsurface of the camera module. The base (20) may be mounted at a positioncorresponding to the image sensor (11) with an IR (infrared) cut-offfilter (25) and may support a bottom side of the housing member (50).The base (20) may be separately mounted with a terminal member forelectric conductivity with the PCB (10), and may be integrally formedwith a terminal using a surface electrode.

Meantime, the base (20) may function as a sensor holder configured toprotect the image sensor (11), and in this case, a protrusion may beformed to a bottom direction along a lateral surface of the base (20).However, the protrusion is not an essential element, and albeit notbeing illustrated, a separate holder sensor may be arranged at a bottomsurface of the base to function as the protrusion.

The holder member (30) may take an approximately square shape, and maybe formed with magnet installation holes (32) mountable with a pluralityof magnets (33) at four surfaces thereof. Alternatively, albeit notbeing illustrated, mounting holes may be formed instead of the magnetinstallation holes (32).At this time, each of the magnets (33) may beformed in a corresponding size, and facing magnets (33) may be arrangedin parallel.

Meantime, although the magnets (33) are arranged on four lateral wallsof the holder member (30) in the first exemplary embodiment, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the magnets (33) may be arrangedon four corner areas of the holder member (30).The holder member (30) isnot an essential configuration, and may be omitted. When the holdermember (30) is omitted, the magnets (33) may be directly secured to thehousing member (50, described later). When the magnets (33) are directlysecured to the housing member (50), the magnets (33) may be directlybonded to a lateral surface or corners of the housing member (50).

Referring to FIG. 1, the holder member (30) may take a shape of a cubicwith four surfaces provided with thin frame shapes, and an upper sideand a bottom side of the holder member (30) may be mounted with upperand bottom elastic members (44, 45, described later) to elasticallysupport the reciprocal movement of the bobbin (40) to an axialdirection. The holder member (30) may be integrally formed asillustrated in FIG. 1. The present disclosure is not limited thereto,and the holder member (30) may be provided with an upper portion and abottom portion being separated.

A floor surface of the holder member (30) may be coupled to the base(20), and an upper surface of the holder member (30) may be coupled tothe housing member (50, described later) to be fixed in position. Absentthe holder member (30), the bottom elastic member (45) may be supportedby the base (20), and the upper elastic member (44) may be supported bythe housing member (50).

The bobbin (40) may be reciprocally mounted at an inside space of thehousing member (50) to a direction parallel to an optical axis. Thebobbin (40) may be mounted at a periphery with a coil unit (43) toenable an electrical interaction with the magnets (33). The bobbin (40)may include therein a lens barrel (42) mounted with at least one lens(42 a). The lens barrel (42) may be so formed as to be screwed into thebobbin (40) as illustrated in FIG. 1. However, the present disclosure isnot limited thereto, and the lens barrel (42) may be directly fixed toan inside of the bobbin (40) by other methods than the screwing, or onesheet or more sheets of lenses may be integrally formed with bobbin (40)without the assistance of lens barrel (42). The lens (42 a) may beformed with one sheet, or two or more lenses may form an optical system.

The bobbin (40) may be mounted at an upper surface and a bottom surfacewith upper elastic member (44) and a bottom elastic member (45). Theupper elastic member (44) may be connected at one end to the bobbin (40)and connected at the other end to an upper side of the housing member(50, described later). The bottom elastic member (45) may be connectedat one end to the bobbin (40) and connected at the other end to the base(20). To this end, the bobbin (40) may be formed at a bottom side with aprotrusion (35 a) for coupling with the bottom elastic member (45), anda protrusion accommodation hole (45 a) may be formed at a positioncorresponding to that of the bottom elastic member (45), whereby thebottom elastic member (45) can be fixed.

Now, referring to FIG. 2, the upper elastic member (44) may include afirst fixation part (44 a) fixed to a housing member (50) side, a secondfixation part (44 c) connected to a bobbin (40) side, and a connectionpart (44 b) configured to connect the first and second fixation parts(44 a, 44 c). At this time, the connection part (44 b) may take a shapeof a predetermine pattern, the movement of which enables the support ofthe bobbin (40).

The cover member (60) may be coupled to the housing member (50) whilecovering the upper elastic member (44). As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 4 and6, an inner surface opposite to the upper elastic member (44) of thecover member (60) may be protrusively formed with a support boss (61)configured to contact an upper surface of the upper elastic member (44).At this time, an end of the support boss (61) may surface-contact theupper elastic member (44).

Meantime, the upper elastic member (44) may be spaced apart from anupper surface of the housing member (50) at a predetermined distance,which is to prevent the upper elastic member (44) from interfering withthe housing member (50) during vertical movement of the bobbin (40). Tothis end, a support protrusion (70) may be protrusively and integrallyformed at an upper side of the housing member (50).

The bobbin (40) may be elastically supported in the bi-directionalmovement relative to an optical axis by the upper and bottom elasticmembers (44, 45) thus coupled. That is, the bobbin (40) may bevertically moved about an initial position spaced apart from the base(20) at a predetermined distance.

The coil unit (43) may be provided as a ring-shaped coil block coupledto a periphery of the bobbin (40). The coil unit (43) formed in theshape of a coil block may include a straight line surface (43 a)arranged at a position corresponding to that of the magnet (33) and acurved line surface (43 b) arranged at a position corresponding to thatof an inner yoke and an accommodation groove (described later).

Alternatively, the coil unit (43) shaped in the form of a coil block maytake an angled shape, and may be of a octagonal shape, the shape ofwhich is proposed in consideration of electromagnetic action with theoppositely-arranged magnet (33), and when a surface opposite to themagnet (33) is a plan, a surface of the facing coil unit (43) may be aplan to thereby maximize the generation of electromagnetic force.However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and a surface ofthe coil unit (43) and a surface of the magnet (33) may be all curved orplain, or one of the surface of the coil unit (43) and the surface ofthe magnet (33) may be curved while the remaining may be plain.

The bobbin (40) may include a first surface (40 a) flatly formed on asurface corresponding to that of the straight line surface (43 a) toallow the coil unit (43) to be coupled to a periphery of the bobbin(40), and a second surface (40 b) formed in a round shape on a surfacecorresponding to that of the curved line surface (43 b). Furthermore,the coil unit (43) may be directly wound on the bobbin (40), and in thiscase, the first surface (40 a) may be formed with a protrusion part (47)configured to prevent the coil unit (43) from being deviated to anoptical axis direction, whereby the coil unit (43) is prevented frombeing deviated from an installation position by the shock generatedduring the reciprocal movement of the bobbin (40), or the arrangedposition of the coil unit (43) may be guided.

Furthermore, the bobbin (40) may be formed at a periphery with aplurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) forming a space part bybeing spaced apart from the coil unit (43) at a predetermined distance,where the plurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) may be insertedby an inner yoke (50 a) formed on the housing member (50). The presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and a separate yoke may be providedinstead of the inner yoke (50 a). The housing member (50) may be a yokehousing configured to function as a yoke.

The housing member (50) may be formed with a ferromagnetic body such assteel. Furthermore, the housing member (50) may be provided with anangled shape when viewed from an upper side in order to wrap the bobbin(40). At this time, the housing member (50) may take a square shape asillustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, or an octagonal shape, albeit not beingillustrated.

The housing member (50) may be integrally formed with the inner yoke (50a) at a position corresponding to that of the accommodation groove, andone surface of the inner yoke (50 a) is spaced apart from the coil unit(43) at a predetermined distance, and the other surface of the inneryoke (50 a) may be spaced apart from the bobbin (40) at a predetermineddistance.

Furthermore, the inner yoke (50 a) and the accommodation groove (notshown) may be formed at four corner areas of the housing member (50).The inner yoke (50 a) may be bent to a direction parallel with anoptical axis from an upper surface of the housing member (50) to aninner side. The inner yoke (50 a) may be symmetrically formed with apair of escape grooves at a position near to a bent portion. The bentportion formed with the escape grooves may form a bottleneck section,and interference of the inner yoke (50 a) and the bobbin (40) may beminimized during movement of the bobbin (40) by a section where theescape grooves are formed.

A distal end of the inner yoke (50 a) needs to be spaced apart at areference position at a predetermined distance from a floor surface ofthe accommodation groove, which is to prevent interference and contactbetween and with a distal end of the inner yoke and the floor surface ofthe accommodation grooves at a highest position during reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (40). Furthermore, the distal end of the inneryoke (50 a) may function as a stopper configured to restrain movement ofthe bobbin (40) to a section other than a designed specification.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, according to the first exemplary embodimentof the present disclosure, a support protrusion (70) may be integrallyand protrusively formed at an upper surface of the housing member (50).The support protrusion (70) may be mounted at a position near to fourcorner areas of the housing member (50), but the present disclosure isnot limited thereto, and may be mounted at four surfaces, if necessary.

The support protrusion (70) is mounted to keep the upper elastic member(44) off the housing member (50) at a predetermined distance, such thatthe arranged position may be changed as much as desired according todesign of the camera module. This is to prevent the bobbin and thehousing member from interfering when the bobbin moves downwards.However, it is preferable that the support protrusion (70) be arrangedat the corner area where there is a relatively sufficient installationspace, and where there is generally no interference with other elementsin the camera module.

The support protrusion (70) is preferably configured along with thehousing member (50) when the housing member (50) is formed. For example,when the housing member (50) is formed using a press working, thesupport protrusion (70) may be configured by pressing and changing aposition where the support protrusion is to be formed in a protrudedshape.

The housing member (50) functions as a yoke by being formed with a metalmaterial, and when the support protrusion (70) is formed by pressworking, an inner area of an upper surface formed with the supportprotrusion (70) of the housing member (50) may be formed with a concavedrecess portion as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6. If the housing member (50) isinjection molded, it is possible to form a shape of the supportprotrusion (70) inside a mold. When the support protrusion (70) isprovided in an integrated configuration with the housing member (50)instead of a separate part or element, the number of parts may bereduced because of no need of using a separate spacer.

FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are schematic views illustrating a process of movementof upper elastic member (44) according to movement of bobbin when theupper elastic member (44) is mounted at an upper side of the supportprotrusion (70) according to the first exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

The upper elastic member (44) is such that the first fixation part (44a) coupled to the housing member, the second fixation part (44 c)coupled to the bobbin and the connection part (44 b) maintain ahorizontal state at an initial position as illustrated in FIG. 4, andwhen the bobbin rises as illustrated in FIG. 5, the first fixation part(44 a) maintains the fixed position to raise the second fixation part(44 c) connected to the bobbin (40) and connection part (44 b) upwardsof the support protrusion (70). In this case, there is generated nointerference between the housing member (50) and the upper elasticmember (44).

Furthermore, when the bobbin (40) descends to a direction of the imagesensor (11, see FIG. 1) as illustrated in FIG. 6, the first fixationpart (44 a) maintains a fixed position to descend the second fixationpart (44 c) connected to the bobbin (40) and the connection part (44 b)downwards of the support protrusion (70). In this case, there isgenerated no interference between the housing member (50) and the upperelastic member (44) because the connection part (44 b) and the secondfixation part (44 c) move to a space formed by the support protrusion(70). Thus, the bobbin (40) can be smoothly ascended or descendedwithout a separate configuration of spacer. The height of the supportprotrusion (70) may have at least a height greater than a strokedistance of the bobbin (40) for movement in FIGS. 4 to 6.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 6, the first fixation part (44a) may be pressed and supported at an upper surface by the supportprotrusion (70) of the cover member (60), and may be pressed andsupported at a floor surface by the support protrusion (70). At thistime, the first fixation part (44 a) may further include a concavedgroove portion (80) to tightly secure the first fixation part (44 a) tothe support protrusion (70). The groove portion (80) may be fixed to thefirst fixation part (44 a) by adhesion, heat-seal and welding methods.

Meantime, each of the support protrusion (70) and the support boss (61)may be formed at a mutually opposite position, where each areacontacting upper and bottom surfaces of the first fixation part (44 a)may have the same shape and surface area as those of opposite surfaces.However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and a distal endof the support protrusion (70) and the support boss (61) may be providedto have a mutually different area.

Furthermore, although FIGS. 4 to 6 have illustrated an example of thegroove portion (80) formed on a surface opposite to the supportprotrusion (70) of the first fixation part (44 a), the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the groove portion (80) may beformed at an upper surface to correspond to the support protrusion (70).In this case, the fixation using the adhesion, heat-seal or welding maybe performed by the support boss (61) instead of the support protrusion(70).

Meanwhile, albeit not illustrated, the groove portion (80) may be formedby a through hole. In this case, the through hole may be coupled by thesupport protrusion (70) and/or by the support boss (61), where thecoupled area may be fixed by any one of welding, heat-seal and adhesionmethods.

Meanwhile, FIGS. 7 to 11 are exemplary views illustrating variousmodified examples of a camera module according to a first exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

As one of examples, the plane shape of the support protrusion (70) maybeformed in a round shape as illustrated in FIG. 7, and the supportprotrusion (70) may be configured to take a cylindrical shape.Alternatively, the plane shape of the support protrusion (70) maybeformed in a square shape as illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9, and thesupport protrusion (70) may be configured to take a rectangularparallelepiped shape. Furthermore, the plane shape of the supportprotrusion (70) maybe formed in a triangular shape as illustrated inFIGS. 10 and 11, and the support protrusion (70) may be configured totake a triangular pillar shape.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIGS. 7, 8 and 11, the support protrusion(70) may be spaced apart from a corner area connected to a lateral wallof the housing member (50) at a predetermined distance, and asillustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10, the support protrusion (70) may be soformed as to be closely contacted to a corner area connected to alateral wall of the housing member (50).

The shapes of the support protrusion (70) according to theabovementioned exemplary embodiments may be selectively used, asrequired, within a scope not interfering with other elements when shapeand size of the upper elastic member (44) and external look of thecamera module are changed.

According to the first exemplary embodiment thus described, the supportprotrusion (70) may be integrally formed by change of upper surface ofthe housing member (50) without a separate spacer element, whereby theassembly process for spacer assembly can be dispensed with forconvenient assembly work. Furthermore, there is an advantageous effectof reducing the number of parts or elements to thereby reduce themanufacturing cost, and solving the erroneous operation caused byinevitable inflow of foreign objects into a gap between connected areasof parts.

Hereinafter, a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosurewill be described with reference to accompanying drawings.

FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,FIG. 13 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a cover member andan upper elastic member of a camera module according to a secondexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 14 is a perspectiveview illustrating an assembled state of FIG. 13, FIG. 15 is a rearperspective view illustrating an assembled state of a housing member, anupper elastic member and a cover member of a camera module according toa second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, FIGS. 16, 17and 18 are schematic view illustrating movement of upper elastic memberof a camera module according to a second exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure, FIG. 19 is a schematic view illustrating a coupledstate of a cover member and an upper elastic member of a camera moduleaccording to a modified example of a second exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure, and FIG. 20 is a schematic view illustrating acoupled state of a cover member and an upper elastic member of a cameramodule according to another modified example of a second exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12, a camera module according to a second exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure may include a PCB (110), a base(120), a bobbin (140), a housing member (150) and a cover member (160).Although the camera module may include a holder member (130) asillustrated in FIG. 12, the holder member may be omitted, if necessary.

The PCB (110) may be mounted with an image sensor (111) to form a floorsurface of the camera module.

The base (120) may be mounted with an IR (Infrared) cut-off filter (125)at a position corresponding to that of the image sensor (111) to supporta bottom side of the housing member (150). The base (120) may be mountedwith a separate terminal member to electrically conduct with the PCB(110), and may be integrally formed with the terminal member using asurface electrode. Meanwhile, the base (120) may function as a sensorholder to protect the image sensor (111), and in this case, a protrusionpart may be formed to a bottom side direction along a lateral surface ofthe base (120). However, the protrusion part is not an essential partand albeit not being illustrated in FIG. 2, a separate sensor holder maybe arranged at a bottom surface of the base (120) to perform the role ofthe protrusion part.

The holder member (130) may take an approximately square shape, and maybe formed with magnet installation holes (132) mountable with aplurality of magnets (133) at four surfaces thereof. Alternatively,albeit not being illustrated, mounting holes may be formed instead ofthe magnet installation holes (132). At this time, each of the magnets(133) may be formed in a corresponding size, and facing magnets (133)may be arranged in parallel.

Meantime, although the magnets (133) are arranged on four lateral wallsof the holder member (130) in the second exemplary embodiment, thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto, and the magnets (133) may bearranged on four corner areas of the holder member (130).The holdermember (130) is not an essential configuration, and may be omitted. Whenthe holder member (130) is omitted, the magnets (133) may be directlysecured to the housing member (150, described later). When the magnets(133) are directly secured to the housing member (150), the magnets(133) may be directly bonded to a lateral surface or corners of thehousing member (150).

An upper surface of the magnet (133) may contact an inner surface of anupper side of the housing member (150). When the number of surfaces ofthe housing member (150) surface-contacting the magnet (133) is great,there may be an effect of interrupting a magnetic field when the housingmember (150) is made of a metal material. Furthermore, at least twosurfaces of the magnet (133) may contact the housing member (150).

Referring to FIG. 12, the holder member (130) may take a shape of acubic with four surfaces provided with thin frame shapes, and an upperside and a bottom side of the holder member (130) may be mounted withupper and bottom elastic members (144, 145, described later) toelastically support the reciprocal movement of the bobbin (140) to anaxial direction. The holder member (130) may be integrally formed asillustrated in FIG. 12. The present disclosure is not limited thereto,and the holder member (130) may be provided with an upper portion and abottom portion being as separable.

A floor surface of the holder member (130) may be coupled to the base(120), and an upper surface of the holder member (130) may be coupled tothe housing member (150, described later) to be fixed in position.Absent the holder member (130), the bottom elastic member (145) may besupported by the base (120), and the upper elastic member (144) may besupported by the housing member (150).

The bobbin (140) may be reciprocally mounted at an inside space of thehousing member (150) to a direction parallel to an optical axis. Thebobbin (140) may be mounted at a periphery with a coil unit (143) toenable an electrical interaction with the magnets (133). The bobbin(140) may include a lens barrel (142) mounted therein with at least onelens (142 a). The lens barrel (142) may be so formed as to be screwedinto the bobbin (140) as illustrated in FIG. 12. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the lens barrel (142) may bedirectly fixed to an inside of the bobbin (140) by other methods thanthe screwing method, or one sheet or more sheets of lenses (142 a) maybe integrally formed with bobbin (140) without the assistance of lensbarrel (142). The lens (142 a) may be formed with one sheet, or two ormore lenses may form an optical system.

Meanwhile, the bobbin (140) may be mounted at an upper surface and abottom surface with upper elastic member (144) and a bottom elasticmember (145). The upper elastic member (144) may be connected at one endto the bobbin (140) and connected at the other end to an upper side ofthe housing member (150, described later). The bottom elastic member(145) may be connected at one end to the bobbin (140) and connected atthe other end to the base (120). To this end, the bobbin (140) may beformed at a bottom side with a protrusion (135 a) for coupling with thebottom elastic member (145), and a protrusion accommodation hole (145 a)may be formed at a position corresponding to that of the bottom elasticmember (145), whereby the bottom elastic member (145) can be secured.

Now, referring to FIG. 13, the upper elastic member (144) may be alsoformed with a protrusion accommodation hole (145 a) and/or anaccommodation groove (145 n), the coupling of which enables the fixationof the upper elastic member (144). Furthermore, the upper elastic member(144) may include, as illustrated in FIG. 13, a first fixation part (144a) fixed to the cover member (160) side, a second fixation part (144 c)connected to a bobbin (140) side, and a connection part (144 b)configured to connect the first and second fixation parts (144 a, 144c). At this time, the connection part (144 b) may take a shape of apredetermine pattern, the movement of which enables the verticalmovement of the bobbin (140). The connection part (144 b) may be soarranged as not to be interfered with a staircase part (175) of thecover member (160, described later).

Referring to FIG. 16, the connection part (144 b) may be a startingpoint of the staircase part (175), whereby the cover member is preventedfrom interfering with the connection part (144 b) while the bobbin (140)vertically moves. Alternatively, the connection part (144 b) may bespaced apart from the starting point of the staircase part (175) at apredetermined distance.

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (144) may be spaced apart from anupper surface of an inner surface of the cover member (160) coupled bythe housing member (150) at a predetermine distance in order to preventthe cover member (160) from interfering with the magnet (133) while thebobbin (140) vertically moves. The connection part (144 b) of the upperelastic member may be positioned at a position spaced apart from themagnet to a horizontal direction. The connection part (144 b) of theupper elastic member may be positioned at a position spaced apart fromthe magnet to a vertical direction. Furthermore, the connection part(144 b) of the upper elastic member may be positioned at a positionspaced apart from the magnet to a diagonal direction, where the diagonaldirection may include a diagonal direction relative to a horizontaldirection, and a diagonal direction relative to a vertical direction.

Meantime, the first fixation part (144 a) may be formed longer than thesecond fixation part (144 c), and at least 13 pairs of connection parts(144 b) may be diagonally arranged, each spaced apart to a lengthwisedirection at a predetermined distance. At this time, the connection part(144 b) may take a predetermined pattern, whereby the bobbin (140) canbe supported. The connection part (144 b) may also integrally connectthe first and second fixation parts (144 a, 144 c).

That is, the connection part (144 b) may be connected at one end to thefirst fixation part (144 a) and connected at the other end to the secondfixation part (144 c). The connection part (144 b) may be also soarranged as not to interfere with the cover member (160) and the magnets(133). The connection part (144 b) may perform an elastic restoringfunction of the upper elastic member (144). The upper elastic member(144) may be spaced apart from an upper surface of the housing member(150) performing the role of yoke at a predetermined distance (g).

That is, the upper elastic member (144) may be first coupled to an innersurface of the cover member (160) in order to prevent the bobbin (140)from interfering with the housing member (150) when the bobbin (140)vertically moves. At this time, the upper elastic member (144) may bespaced apart from the upper surface of the housing member (150) at apredetermined distance (g) (See FIG. 16). At this time, the distance (g)may be formed longer than a falling stroke distance of the bobbin (140)to prevent the upper elastic member (144) from interfering with thehousing member when the bobbin (140) performs a descending operation.The configuration of forming the distance (g) may be formed by thestaircase part (175) formed at an inner side of the cover member (160,described later).

To this end, an upper side of an inner surface of the cover member(160), the housing member (150) and the upper elastic member (144) maybe respectively formed with a complementarily formed upper elasticmember fixation part (170), as illustrated in FIG. 16. The upper elasticmember fixation part (170) may include a support protrusion (171), afirst through hole (172) and a second through hole (173), theconfiguration of which enables formation of upper elastic memberfixation part (170) on the cover member (160) that is drivable to anupper side and a bottom side. Particularly, the cover member (160) maybe formed with a shape having more than two stairs.

That is, the cover member (160) may be formed with the upper protrusion(171), where the upper protrusion (171) may be piercingly coupled to theupper elastic member (144). Furthermore, the cover member (160) and theupper elastic member (144) may be fixed on the support protrusion (171)by heat seal, or fixed using an adhesive after assembly of the upperelastic member (144) to the support protrusion (171), and the covermember (160) may be fixed by press-fitting the support protrusion (161)and the upper elastic member (144). Furthermore, the support protrusion(171) may be piercingly coupled to a second through hole (173) formed onthe housing member (150) performing a role of yoke, or partiallyinserted into the second through hole and coupled.

Referring to FIG. 16, when the support protrusion (171) is formed tocorrespond to the first through hole (172) of the upper elastic member(144) and the second through hole (173) of the housing member (150), thesupport protrusion (171) may be coupled to the first and second throughholes (172, 173), and at this time, the support protrusion (171) and theupper elastic member (144) may be bonded at a first coupling part (180),and the support protrusion (171) and the housing member (150) may befused or bonded at a second coupling part (190).

In order to fuse the upper elastic member (144) on the supportprotrusion (171), an auxiliary support protrusion (176) may be formednear the support protrusion (171) in addition to the support protrusion(171), and an auxiliary through hole (177) may be formed at a positioncorresponding to that of the auxiliary support protrusion (176) of theupper elastic member (144), where the fixation of the upper elasticmember (144) may be performed through heat seal, as illustrated in FIG.19.

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 20, in order to fuse or bond thehousing member (150) and the cover member (160), a length of the supportprotrusion (171) is made longer to allow being inserted deep into aninner space part of the housing member (150), whereby the cover member(160) can be fixed to the housing member (150) by changing a shape of adistal end of the support protrusion (171) through heat seal, or anadhesive may be coated for fixation of the cover member (160) to thehousing member (150).

Meantime, as illustrated in FIGS. 16 to 18, an end of the supportprotrusion (171) may be so formed as not to protrude from an innersurface of the housing member (150). At this time, when the magnet (133)is mounted at a corner area of the housing member (150), the magnet(133) may surface-contact three surfaces, that is, both lateral surfacesand an upper surface of the housing member (150). Furthermore, when thesupport protrusion (171) protrudes from an inner surface of the housingmember (150) to a direction facing the magnet (133), an end of thesupport protrusion (171) may be brought into contact with the magnet(133), where the magnet (133) may contact two areas, that is, bothlateral surfaces of the housing member (150).

The bi-directional movement of the bobbin (140) may be elasticallysupported relative to an optical axis direction by the upper and bottomelastic members (144, 145) thus coupled. That is, the bobbin (140) maybe controlled in upward and downward movements about an initial positionspaced apart from the base (120) at a predetermined distance.

Meantime, the coil unit (143) may be provided as a ring-shaped coilblock coupled to a periphery of the bobbin (140). The coil unit (143)formed in the shape of a coil block may include a straight line surface(143 a) arranged at a position corresponding to that of the magnet (133)and a curved line surface (143 b) arranged at a position correspondingto that of an inner yoke and an accommodation groove (described later).

Alternatively, the coil block-shaped coil unit (143) may take an angledshape, and may be of an octagonal shape. That is, the coil unit (143)may be formed with a straight line surface free from curved line, wherethe shape of which is proposed in consideration of electromagneticaction with the oppositely-arranged magnet (133), and when a surfaceopposite to the magnet (133) is a plan, a surface of the facing coilunit (143) may be also a plan to thereby maximize the generation ofelectromagnetic force. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and a surface of the coil unit (143) and a surface of themagnet (133) may be all curved or plain, or one of the surface of thecoil unit (143) and the surface of the magnet (133) may be curved whilethe remaining may be plain.

Meantime, the bobbin (140) may include a first surface (140 a) flatlyformed on a surface corresponding to that of the straight line surface(143 a) to allow the coil unit (143) to be coupled to a periphery of thebobbin (140), and a second surface (140 b) formed in a round shape on asurface corresponding to that of the curved line surface (143 b).Furthermore, the coil unit (143) may be directly wound on the bobbin(140), and in this case, the first surface (140 a) may be formed with aprotrusion part (147) configured to prevent the coil unit (143) frombeing deviated to an optical axis direction of the coil unit (143),whereby the coil unit (143) can be prevented from being deviated from aninstallation position by the shock generated during the reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (140), or the arranged position of the coil unit(143) may be guided.

Furthermore, the bobbin (140) may be formed at a periphery with aplurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) forming a space part bybeing spaced apart from the coil unit (143) at a predetermined distance,where the plurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) may be insertedby an inner yoke (150 a) formed on the housing member (150). The presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and a separate yoke may be providedinstead of the inner yoke (150 a). At this time, the housing member(150) may be a yoke housing configured to function as a yoke.

The housing member (150) may be formed with a ferromagnetic body such assteel. Furthermore, the housing member (150) may be provided with anangled shape when viewed from an upper side in order to wrap the bobbin(140). At this time, the housing member (150) may take a square shape,as illustrated in FIGS. 12, 13 and 14, or an octagonal shape, albeit notbeing illustrated.

When the housing member (150) takes an octagonal shape when viewed froman upper side, and when a shape of the magnet (133) arranged at a cornerof the housing member (150) takes a trapezoidal shape when viewed froman upper side, the magnetic field emitted from the corner of the housingmember (150) can be minimized.

The housing member (150) may be integrally formed with an inner yoke(150 a) at a position corresponding to that of the accommodation groove,and one surface of the inner yoke (150 a) is spaced apart from the coilunit (143) at a predetermined distance, and the other surface of theinner yoke (150 a) may be spaced apart from the bobbin (140) at apredetermined distance.

Furthermore, the inner yoke (150 a) and the accommodation groove (notshown) may be formed at four corner areas of the housing member (150).The inner yoke (150 a) may be bent inward to a direction parallel withan optical axis from an upper surface of the housing member (150). Theinner yoke (150 a) may be symmetrically formed with a pair of escapegrooves at a position near to the bent portion. The bent portion formedwith the escape grooves may form a bottleneck section, and interferenceof the inner yoke (150 a) and the bobbin (140) can be minimized duringmovement of the bobbin (140) by the section where the escape grooves areformed.

A distal end of the inner yoke (150 a) needs to be spaced apart at areference position at a predetermined distance from a floor surface ofthe accommodation groove, which is to prevent interference and contactbetween and with a distal end of the inner yoke and the floor surface ofthe accommodation grooves at a highest position during reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (140). Furthermore, the distal end of the inneryoke (150 a) may function as a stopper configured to restrain movementof the bobbin (140) to a section other than that of a designedspecification.

The cover member (160) may be coupled to an upper side of the housingmember (150) to fix the first fixation part (144 a) of the upper elasticmember (144) coupled to an upper side of the bobbin (140). An externalsurface and/or an inner surface of the cover member (160) may be formedwith a staircase part (175) as mentioned above.

The staircase part (175) prevents the connection part (144 b) frominterfering with an inner surface of the cover member (160) when theupper elastic member (144) vertically moves in response to the movementof the bobbin (140). At this time, the staircase part (175) may beformed only on the inner surface as illustrated. But the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the staircase part may be formedon both the inner surface and the external surface when the staircasepart is formed by press work.

For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 16, the staircase part (175)may be formed at an inner side of the cover member (160), and thestaircase part (175) may be so formed as to prevent the upper elasticmember (144) and an inner side of the cover member (160) from beinginterfered when the upper elastic member (144) moves upwards. That is,the staircase part (175) is formed from an inner surface of the covermember (160) to a bottom side direction, and the support protrusion(171, described later) is protrusively formed to a bottom side directionfrom the staircase part (175) to prevent the upper elastic member (144),the cover member (160), the upper elastic member (144) and the housingmember (150) from interfering. The staircase part (175) may be so formedas to support the first fixation part (144 a) of the upper elasticmember (144), and may be smaller than, greater than or corresponding tothe first fixation part (144 a).

The cover member (160) may have a shape corresponding to that of thehousing member (150), and may include therein a space part formed by thestaircase part (175). The size of the space part may be greater than awidth and a thickness of the upper elastic member (144), and even if theupper elastic member (144) is changed in shape by the movement of thebobbin (140), the housing member (150) and an inner surface of the covermember (160) are prevented from interfering with the housing member(150).

Meanwhile, a reference surface at the actuator of VCM method thusdescribed may be an upper surface of the housing member (150) and abottom surface of the cover member (160) at the time of assembly stage.When the reference surface is set up, the separate spacer is notrequired as mentioned above to thereby reduce the number of parts,whereby tolerance stack and the number of processes can be reducedbecause of the reduced number of parts.

Furthermore, an upper side of the inner space part at the cover member(160) may be formed with a plurality of support protrusions (171)protrusively formed to a direction facing the housing member (150). Thesupport protrusion (171) may be formed with an approximately cylindricalshaped boss. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, andmay be formed in various shapes such as a triangular pillar, a squarepillar and a polygonal shape. Thus, assembly of the cover member (160)and the housing member (150) may be guided by coupling between thesupport protrusions (171) and the second through hole (173), andfixation thereof may be realized by bonding or heat-seal and othermethods. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, andother various methods may be applied for fixation such as welding andtaping.

Meantime, the support protrusion (171) may be integrally formed with thecover member (160) as one body. For example, when the cover member (160)is formed with a metal material using press works, it is possible toform the cover member (160) by protrusively changing the shape of a partof the support protrusion (171). Alternatively, when the cover member(160) is injection molded using resin material, the support protrusion(171) may be shaped in a mold to thereby form the cover member (160).

Meantime, an upward side of an inner surface formed with the supportprotrusion (171) of the cover member (160) may have a concaved groovepart. When the support protrusion (171) is integrally formed with thehousing member (150) instead of a separate part, the number of parts canbe reduced because there is no need of using a separate spacer.Furthermore, the assembly process for the spacer can be omitted tofurther simplify the overall assembly process.

The support protrusions (171) may be mounted at a position near to fourcorner areas at an upper side of the inner surface of the cover member(160). However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and thesupport protrusions (171) may be formed at four surfaces. The supportprotrusion (171) is to fix an upper surface of the upper elastic member(144) and the housing member (150) by spacing apart at a predetermineddistance, such that arranged position may be variably changed dependingon design of the camera module. In view of the fact that corner areasare generally where there is a relatively sufficient space that is notinterfered with other parts in the camera module, the supportprotrusions (171) may be arranged at corners on a surface opposite tothe housing member (150) of an inner surface of the cover member (160).

Meanwhile, a first through hole (172) having a shape corresponding tothat of the support protrusion (171) may be piercingly formed at aposition corresponding to that of the support protrusion (171) of theupper elastic member (144). T he first through hole (172) may be formedat a first fixation part (144 a) side. Of course, a part of the firstthrough hole (172) may be overlappingly formed at a connection part (144b) side, but in view of the fact that the position of the connectionpart (144 b) is a place where elastic transformation of the elasticmembers is generated, it is necessary that there be no interference withthe pattern of the connection part (144 b).

Although the first through hole (172) and the support protrusion (171)may be press-fitted, a first coupling part (180, see FIG. 14) may beformed at a coupled position using bonding using an adhesive orheat-seal for maintenance of more stable coupling state. As noted fromthe drawing, the first coupling part (180) may be formed at a coupledarea between the first through hole (172) and the support protrusion(171), the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the firstcoupling part (180) may be formed by directly bonding the upper elasticmember (144) and an inner surface of the cover member (160).

Alternatively, the first coupling part (180) may be realized byperformance of assembly process using a press-fitting process betweenthe support protrusion (171) and the first through hole (172) instead ofa process using any one of separate adhesive, welding and heat-sealmethods. In this case, a diameter of the first through hole (172) may besmaller than that of the support protrusion (171).

The upper elastic member (144) may be initially assembled on an innersurface of the cover member (160) at the time of assembly, and thenassembly of other parts may be performed thereafter. For example,connection/fixation between the upper elastic member (144) and thebobbin (140) may be performed after the upper elastic member (144) isfixed to the cover member (160) side.

Furthermore, a second through hole (173) may be piercingly formed at aposition corresponding to that of the support protrusion (171). At thistime, the second through hole (173) may be formed with an end of thesupport protrusion (171) having passed the first through hole (172) ofthe upper elastic member (144) by way of press-fitting process. At thistime, a second coupling part (190, see FIG. 15) may be formed at acoupled position between the second through hole (173) and the supportprotrusion (171) using bonding or heat-seal process for maintenance ofmore stable coupled state. Furthermore, the housing member (150) may beformed at a position corresponding to that of the support protrusion(171) with a groove part instead of the through hole, and a separatethrough hole or groove part may not be formed.

If a groove part is formed, only a part of the end of the supportprotrusion (171) may be accommodated into the groove part. When thesecond coupling part (190) is formed, the cover member (160) may befixed at an upper surface of the housing member (150) by couplingbetween the support protrusion (171) and the second through hole (173).

FIGS. 16, 17 and 18 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member of a camera module according to a second exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

At an initial position, the upper elastic member (144) is such that thefirst and second fixation parts (144 a, 144 c) and the connection part(144 b) maintain a horizontal state as illustrated in FIG. 16, and whenthe bobbin (140) ascends as illustrated in FIG. 17, the first fixationpart (144 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the second fixationpart (144 c) connected to the bobbin (140) and the connection part (144b) to rise upwards of the support protrusion (171). In this case, thereis generated no interference between the cover member (150) and theupper elastic member (144). Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 18, whenthe bobbin (140) descends to a direction of the image sensor (111, seeFIG. 12), the first fixation part (144 a) maintains a fixed position toallow the second fixation part (144 c) connected to the bobbin (140) andthe connection part (144 c) to descend to a bottom side of the supportprotrusion (171). In this case, the upper elastic member (144) descendsdownwards maintaining a fixed state by coupling with the supportprotrusion (171), where, as the upper elastic member (144) and thehousing member (150) are spaced apart at a predetermined distance (g) asillustrated in FIG. 16, there is no interference of an upper surface ofthe housing member (150) and the upper elastic member (144) even duringthe descent of the bobbin (140). Thus, the bobbin (140) can smoothlyperform the ascent and descent movement even without a separateconfiguration of a spacer. A height of the support protrusion (171) mayhave at least a height more than a stroke distance of the bobbin (140)in order to have the movement of FIGS. 16 to 18.

The shape of the support protrusion (171) according to the aboveexemplary embodiments thus described may be selectively chosen asnecessary within a scope where there is generated no interference withother parts when the shape and size of the upper elastic member (144)and an external look of the camera module are changed.

According to the second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,a support protrusion (171) can be integrally formed by changing theshape of an inner surface of the cover member (160) without a separatespacer part, whereby assembly process for a spacer can be omitted tofurther simplify the assembly process of the camera module. Furthermore,an effect of reducing the manufacturing cost in response to reducenumber of parts can be accomplished and an erroneous operation caused byinducement of foreign objects into a gap between parts that inevitablyoccurs during assembly works of parts can be also solved.

Hereinafter, a third exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure willbe described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 21 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a third exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,FIG. 22 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a spacer member andan upper elastic member of a camera module according to a thirdexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 23 is a perspectiveview illustrating an assembled state of FIG. 22, and FIGS. 24, 25 and 26are schematic view illustrating movement of upper elastic member of acamera module according to a third exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 21, a camera module according to a third exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure may include a PCB (210), a base(220), a bobbin (240), and a housing member (250), and the housingmember (250) may be formed therein with a spacer member (260).

The PCB (210) may be mounted with an image sensor (211) to form a floorsurface of the camera module.

The base (220) may be mounted with an IR (Infrared) cut-off filter (225)at a position corresponding to that of the image sensor (211) and may becoupled to the housing member (250), and may support a bottom side ofthe housing member (250). The base (220) may be mounted with a separateterminal member to electrically conduct with the PCB (210), and may beintegrally formed with the terminal member using a surface electrode.Meanwhile, the base (220) may function as a sensor holder to protect theimage sensor (211), and in this case, a protrusion part may be formed toa bottom side direction along a lateral surface of the base (220).However, the protrusion part is not an essential part, and albeit notbeing illustrated in FIG. 2, a separate sensor holder may be arranged ata bottom surface of the base (220) to perform the role of the protrusionpart.

Magnets (233) may be directly fixed to the housing member (250,described later). When the magnets (233) are directly fixed to thehousing member (250), the magnets (233) may be directly bonded to alateral surface or corner area of the housing member (250).Furthermore,the magnets (233) may contact at an upper surface a first fixation part(244 a) of an upper elastic member (244). When the housing member (250)is made of a metal material, the cut-off effect of magnetic field can bemore efficient if the number of surfaces of the housing member (250)contacting the magnets (233) is great.

Furthermore, at least two surfaces of the magnet (233) may contact thehousing member (250). For example, when the magnet (233) takes atrapezoidal shape when viewed from a plan, the magnet (233) may contactat least more than one inner lateral surface of the housing member(250). Although the third exemplary embodiment illustrates that themagnets (233) are arranged at four corner areas of the housing member(250), the magnets (233) may be arranged at four inner surfaces of thehousing member (250).

A bottom elastic member (245) may be supported by the base (220) and/orby housing member (250), and the upper elastic member (244) may besupported by a spacer member (260). At this time, the upper elasticmember (244) may be coupled to a support protrusion (270) formed at thespacer member (260), and the bottom elastic member (245) may beinterposed between the housing member (250) and the base (220).

The bobbin (240) may be reciprocally mounted at an inside space of thehousing member (250) to a direction parallel to an optical axis. Thebobbin (240) may be mounted at a periphery with a coil unit (243) toenable an electrical interaction with the magnets (233). The bobbin(240) may include a lens barrel (242) mounted therein with at least onelens (242 a). The lens barrel (242) may be so formed as to be screwedinto the bobbin (240) as illustrated in FIG. 21. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the lens barrel (242) may bedirectly fixed to an inside of the bobbin (240) by other methods thanthe screwing method, or one sheet or more sheets of lenses (242 a) maybe integrally formed with bobbin (240) without the assistance of lensbarrel (242). The lens (242 a) may be formed with one sheet, or two ormore lenses may be arranged to form an optical system.

The bobbin (240) may be mounted at an upper surface and a bottom surfacewith upper elastic member (244) and a bottom elastic member (245). Theupper elastic member (244) may be connected at one end to the bobbin(240) and may be assembled at an inner space part of the housing member(250) after being coupled to the spacer member (260) formed at an innersurface of the housing member (250). The bottom elastic member (245) maybe connected at one end to the bobbin (240) and connected at the otherend to an upper surface of the base (220). To this end, the bobbin (240)may be formed at a bottom side with a protrusion (235 a) for couplingwith the bottom elastic member (245), and a protrusion accommodationhole (245 a) may be formed at a position corresponding to that of thebottom elastic member (245), whereby the bottom elastic member (245) canbe secured.

The upper elastic member (244) may include, as illustrated in FIG. 22, afirst fixation part (244 a) connected to the spacer member (260) side, asecond fixation part (244 c) connected to the bobbin (240) and the firstfixation member (244 a), and a connection part (244 b) configured toconnect the first and second fixation parts (244 a, 244 c). At thistime, the connection part (244 b) may take a shape of a predeterminepattern, the movement of which enables the vertical movement of thebobbin (240). Furthermore, the connection part (244 b) may be soarranged as not to be interfered with a staircase part (271) of thespacer member (260, described later). The connection part (244 b)performs an elasticity restoring function of the upper elastic member(244).

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 24, the connection part (244 b) may bea starting point of the staircase part (271), whereby the spacer member(260) and the connection part (244 b) are prevented from interferingwhile the bobbin (240) vertically moves. Alternatively, the connectionpart (244 b) may be spaced apart from the starting point of thestaircase part (271) at a predetermined distance.

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (244) may be spaced apart from anupper surface of an inner surface of the spacer member (260) coupled tothe housing member (250) at a predetermined distance in order to preventthe spacer member (260) from interfering with the magnets (233) whilethe bobbin (240) vertically moves. The connection part (244 b) of theupper elastic member may be positioned at a position spaced apart fromthe magnet to a horizontal direction. The connection part (244 b) of theupper elastic member (244) may be positioned at a position spaced apartfrom the magnet to a vertical direction. Furthermore, the connectionpart (244 b) of the upper elastic member may be positioned at a positionspaced apart from the magnets to a diagonal direction, where thediagonal direction may include a diagonal direction relative to ahorizontal direction, and a diagonal direction relative to a verticaldirection.

Meantime, the first fixation part (244 a) may be formed longer than thesecond fixation part (244 c), and at least 22 pairs of connection parts(244 b) may be diagonally arranged, each spaced apart to a lengthwisedirection at a predetermined distance. At this time, the connection part(244 b) may take a predetermined pattern, whereby the bobbin (240) canbe supported. Furthermore, the connection part (244 b) may alsointegrally connect the first and second fixation parts (244 a, 244 c).

That is, the connection part (244 b) may be integrally connected at oneend to the first fixation part (244 a) and integrally connected at theother end to the second fixation part (244 c). The connection part (244b) may be also so arranged as not to interfere with the spacer member(260) and the magnets (233). The connection part (244 b) may perform anelasticity restoring function of the upper elastic member (244).

The upper elastic member (244) may be coupled at one end to a firstprotrusion (234 a) formed at an upper surface of the bobbin (240), andconnected at the other end with magnets and/or spacer. To this end, aposition corresponding to that of the upper elastic member (244) may beformed with a first protrusion accommodation hole (244 a).

Meanwhile, the upper elastic member (244) may be first coupled to aninner surface of the spacer member (260) in order to prevent the bobbin(240) from interfering with the housing member (250) when the bobbin(240) vertically moves. When the upper elastic member (244) is installedas mentioned in the foregoing, the upper elastic member (244) can bespaced apart from an upper surface of the housing member (250) at apredetermined distance to prevent the upper elastic member frominterfering with the housing member (250). At this time, the distancemay be formed longer than a stroke distance of the bobbin (240) toprevent the upper elastic member (244) from interfering with the housingmember when the bobbin (240) performs an ascending operation.Furthermore, the connection part (244 b) of the upper elastic member(244) may be positioned at a position spaced apart from the magnets to ahorizontal direction. The connection part (244 b) of the upper elasticmember (244) may be positioned at a position spaced apart from themagnets to a vertical direction. Furthermore, the connection part (244b) of the upper elastic member may be positioned at a position spacedapart from the magnets to a diagonal direction, where the diagonaldirection may include a diagonal direction relative to a horizontaldirection, and a diagonal direction relative to a vertical direction. Tothis end, the spacer member (260) may be formed with a supportprotrusion (270), and a position corresponding to that of the upperelastic member (244) may be formed with a through hole (275), a detaileddescription of which will be provided later.

The bi-directional movement of the bobbin (240) may be elasticallysupported relative to an optical axis direction by the upper and bottomelastic members (244, 245) thus coupled. That is, the bobbin (240) maybe controlled in upward and downward movements about an initial positionspaced apart from the base (220) at a predetermined distance.

Meantime, the coil unit (243) may be provided as a ring-shaped coilblock coupled to a periphery of the bobbin (240). The coil unit (243)formed in the shape of a coil block may include a straight line surface(243 a) arranged at a position corresponding to that of the magnet (233)and a curved line surface (243 b) arranged at a position correspondingto that of an inner yoke and an accommodation groove (described later).

Alternatively, the coil block-shaped coil unit (243) may take an angledshape, and may be of an octagonal shape. That is, the coil unit (243)may be formed with a straight line surface free from a curved line,where the shape of which is proposed in consideration of electromagneticaction with the oppositely-arranged magnet (233), and when a surfaceopposite to the magnet (233) is a plan, a surface of the facing coilunit (243) may be also a plan to thereby maximize the generation ofelectromagnetic force. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and a surface of the coil unit (243) and a surface of themagnet (233) may be all curved or plain, or one of the surface of thecoil unit (243) and the surface of the magnet (233) may be curved whilethe remaining surface may be plain.

Meantime, the bobbin (240) may include a first surface (240 a) flatlyformed on a surface corresponding to that of the straight line surface(243 a) to allow the coil unit (243) to be coupled to a periphery of thebobbin (240), and a second surface (240 b) formed in a round shape on asurface corresponding to that of the curved line surface (243 b).Furthermore, the coil unit (243) may be directly wound on the bobbin(240), and in this case, the first surface (240 a) may be formed with aprotrusion part (247) configured to prevent the coil unit (243) frombeing deviated to an optical axis direction of the coil unit (243),whereby the coil unit (243) can be prevented from being deviated from aninstallation position by the shock generated during the reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (240), or the arranged position of the coil unit(243) may be guided.

Furthermore, the bobbin (240) may be formed at a periphery with aplurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) forming a space part bybeing spaced apart from the coil unit (243) at a predetermined distance,where the plurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) may be insertedby an inner yoke (250 a) formed on the housing member (250). The presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and a separate yoke may be providedinstead of the inner yoke (250 a). At this time, the housing member(250) may be a yoke housing configured to function as a yoke.

The housing member (250) may be formed with a ferromagnetic body such assteel. Furthermore, the housing member (250) may be provided with anangled shape when viewed from an upper side in order to wrap the bobbin(240). At this time, the housing member (250) may take a square shape,as illustrated in FIG. 21, or an octagonal shape, albeit not beingillustrated.

Furthermore, when the housing member (250) takes an octagonal shape whenviewed from an upper side, and when a shape of the magnet (233) arrangedat a corner of the housing member (250) takes a trapezoidal shape whenviewed from an upper side, the magnetic field emitted from the corner ofthe housing member (250) can be minimized.

The housing member (250) may be integrally formed with an inner yoke(250 a) at a position corresponding to that of the accommodation groove,and one surface of the inner yoke (250 a) is spaced apart from the coilunit (243) at a predetermined distance, and the other surface of theinner yoke (250 a) may be spaced apart from the bobbin (240) at apredetermined distance.

Furthermore, the inner yoke (250 a) may be bent inward to a directionparallel with an optical axis from an upper surface of the housingmember (250). The inner yoke (250 a) may be symmetrically formed with apair of escape grooves at a position near to the bent portion. The bentportion formed with the escape grooves may form a bottleneck section,and interference of the inner yoke (250 a) and the bobbin (240) can beminimized during movement of the bobbin (240) by the section where theescape grooves are formed.

A distal end of the inner yoke (250 a) needs to be spaced apart at areference position at a predetermined distance from a floor surface ofthe accommodation groove, which is to prevent interference and contactbetween and with a distal end of the inner yoke and the floor surface ofthe accommodation grooves at a highest position during reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (240). Furthermore, the distal end of the inneryoke (250 a) may function as a stopper configured to restrain movementof the bobbin (240) to a section other than that of a designedspecification.

The spacer member (260) may be coupled to an upper side at an innerspace of the housing member (250) to secure the first fixation part (244a) of the upper elastic member (244) coupled to an upper side of thebobbin (240). The spacer member (260) may have a shape corresponding tothat of an inner surface of the housing member (250), and may be formedtherein with a space part. The size of the space part may be greaterthan a width and a thickness of the upper elastic member (244), suchthat even if the upper elastic member (244) is changed in shape by themovement of the bobbin (240), the inner surface of the spacer member(260) is prevented from interfering with the upper elastic member (244).

That is, as illustrated in FIGS. 24, 25 and 26, an inner surface of thespacer member (260) may be formed with a staircase part (271), wherebythe upper elastic member (244) and an inner surface of the spacer member(260) are prevented from interfering when the upper elastic member (244)vertically moves. Furthermore, the staircase member (271) may be omittedto prevent the upper elastic member (244) and the housing member (250)from interfering.

Furthermore, a floor surface of a space part at an inner side of thespacer member (260) may be formed with a plurality of supportprotrusions (270) protrusively formed to a direction facing the housingmember (250). The support protrusion (270) may be formed with anapproximately cylindrically shaped boss. However, the present disclosureis not limited thereto, and may be formed in various shapes such as atriangular pillar, a square pillar and a polygonal shape. A length ofthe support protrusion (270) is preferably at least longer than a strokedistance of the bobbin (240), which is to prevent the upper elasticmember (244) from interfering with ambient parts when the bobbin (240)vertically moves.

Meantime, the support protrusion (270) may be integrally formed with thespacer member (260) as one body. For example, when the spacer member(260) is formed with a metal material using press works, it is possibleto form the spacer member (260) by protrusively changing the shape of apart of the support protrusion (270). Alternatively, when the spacermember (260) is injection molded using resin material, the supportprotrusion (270) may be shaped in a mold to thereby form the spacermember (260).

Furthermore, the spacer member (260) may be formed with an injectionmoldable material. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and the spacer member (260) may be formed with a metalmaterial. When the spacer member (260) may be formed with a metalmaterial, the spacer member (260) is installed at an inner side of thehousing member (250) functioning as a yoke to allow being configuredwith a ferromagnetic body as the housing member (250), wherebyelectromagnetic efficiency can be maximized. When the support protrusion(270) is integrally formed with the spacer member (260) to be installedat an inner side of the housing member (250), there is no need ofinstalling a separate spacer at a bottom surface of the housing member(250) to enable reduction of height of the camera module.

The support protrusions (270) may be mounted at a position near to fourcorner areas at an upper side of the inner surface of the spacer member(260). However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and thesupport protrusions (270) may be formed at four surfaces. The supportprotrusion (270) is to fix an upper surface of the upper elastic member(244) and the magnets (233) by spacing apart at a predetermineddistance, such that arranged position may be variably changed dependingon design of the camera module. However, in view of the fact that cornerareas are generally where there is a relatively sufficient space that isnot interfered with other parts in the camera module, the supportprotrusions (270) may be preferably arranged at corners on a surfaceopposite to the housing member (250) of an inner surface of the spacermember (260).

Meanwhile, a through hole (275) having a shape corresponding to that ofthe support protrusion (270) may be piercingly formed at a positioncorresponding to that of the support protrusion (270) of the upperelastic member (244). The through hole (270) may be formed at a firstfixation part (244 a) side. Of course, a part of the through hole (275)may be overlappingly formed at a connection part (244 b) side, but inview of the fact that the position of the connection part (244 b) is aplace where elastic transformation of the elastic members is generated,it is necessary that there be no interference with the pattern of theconnection part (244 b).

Although the through hole (275) and the support protrusion (270) may bepress-fitted, a coupling part (280, see FIG. 23) may be formed at acoupled position using process using an adhesive, heat-seal or weldingfor maintenance of more stable coupling state.

As noted from the drawing, the coupling part (280) may be formed at acoupled area between the through hole (275) and the support protrusion(270), but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and thecoupling part (280) may be formed by directly bonding the upper elasticmember (244) and an inner surface of the spacer member (260) usingadhesion, heat-seal or welding. Furthermore, when the spacer member(260) is formed with steel material, the coupling part (280) may becoupled by welding with the upper elastic member (244).

Meantime, an end of the support protrusion (270) may surface-contactand/or line-contact and/or spot-contact an upper surface of the magnets(233) as illustrated in FIG. 24. At this time, the upper elastic member(244) is spaced apart from the magnets (233) at a predetermined distancewhile being coupled to the support protrusion (270), such that the upperelastic member (244) cannot be interfered with the magnets (233) and thespacer member (260) when the bobbin (240) vertically moves.

Furthermore, even if the support protrusion (270) is absent, the upperelastic member (244) can be interposed between the spacer member (260)and the magnet (233) to prevent interference with the housing member(250), whereby a stroke space can be obtained to a direction toward anupper surface of the housing member (250) as much as a thickness of thespacer member (250), and the connection part (244 b) of the upperelastic member (244) starts from the magnet (233) to a magnet (233)direction or is spaced apart from the magnet (233) at a predetermineddistance to obtain a stroke space whereby no interference can begenerated.

The upper elastic member (244) may be initially assembled on an innersurface of the spacer member (260) at the time of assembly, and thenassembly of other parts may be performed thereafter. For example,connection/fixation between the upper elastic member (244) and thebobbin (240) may be performed after the upper elastic member (244) issecured to the spacer member (260) side.

According to the abovementioned configuration, assembly process can besimplified over the conventional fixation process of upper elasticmember (244) to thereby enhance the workability. Furthermore, the upperelastic member (244) can be prevented from being damaged during theassembly process, because supply of parts can be realized while theupper elastic member (244) and the spacer member (260) are supplied bybeing first assembled together.

FIGS. 24, 25 and 26 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member (244) of a camera module according to a third exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure, where the upper elastic member(244) is mounted at an upper side of the support protrusion (270).

At an initial position, the upper elastic member (244) is such that thefirst and second fixation parts (244 a, 244 c) and the connection part(244 b) maintain a horizontal state as illustrated in FIG. 24, and whenthe bobbin (240) ascends as illustrated in FIG. 25, the first fixationpart (244 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the second fixationpart (244 c) connected to the bobbin (240) and the connection part (244b) to rise upwards of the support protrusion (270). In this case, thereis generated no interference between the spacer member (260) and theupper elastic member (244).

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 25, when the bobbin (240) descendsto a direction of the image sensor (211, see FIG. 21), the firstfixation part (244 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the secondfixation part (244 c) connected to the bobbin (240) and the connectionpart (244 b) to descend downwards of the support protrusion (270). Inthis case, the upper elastic member (244) descends downwards whilemaintaining a fixed state by coupling with the support protrusion (270),where, as the upper elastic member (244) and the magnets (233) arespaced apart at a predetermined distance as illustrated in FIG. 24,there is no interference between the magnets (233) and the upper elasticmember (244) even during the descent of the bobbin (240). Thus, thebobbin (240) can smoothly perform the ascent and descent movement at aspace part of an inner side of the housing member (250). A height of thesupport protrusion (270) may have at least a height more than a strokedistance of the bobbin (240) in order to have the movement of FIGS. 24to 26.

The shape of the support protrusion (270) according to the aboveexemplary embodiments thus described may be selectively chosen asnecessary within a scope where there is generated no interference withother parts when the shape and size of the upper elastic member (244)and an external look of the camera module are changed.

According to the third exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, asupport protrusion (270) can be inserted into an inner space part of thehousing member (250) to provide a smooth vertical reciprocal movement tothe bobbin (240) because the magnets (233), a holder member (not shown)and the upper elastic member (244) can be spaced apart at apredetermined distance using the support protrusion (270) integrallyformed with the spacer member (260). Furthermore, there is no need ofinstalling a separate spacer at an outside of the housing member (250)to thereby reduce the height of the camera module and to miniaturize theproduct.

Meanwhile, the camera module according to the third exemplary embodimentof the present disclosure is such that the upper elastic member (244) isfirst assembled to the spacer member (260) thus configured, and anassembly thereof is coupled to an inner surface of the housing member(250) and then, the magnets (233) can be assembled, whereby, when theassembly process is performed as per the above order, the upper elasticmember (244) that may be easily damaged in the course of assemblyprocess can be prevented from being damaged to thereby increase theassemblage, because the easily-damageable upper elastic member (244) isassembled on the housing member (250) while first being in an assembledstate to the spacer member (260).

Furthermore, the staircase part (271) is formed at an ambience of thesupport protrusion (270) integrally formed with the spacer member (260)to allow the upper elastic member (244) to move inside a space formed bythe stair case part (271), whereby when the upper elastic member (244)can be prevented from interfering with the housing member (250) when thebobbin (240) vertically and reciprocally moves. Thus, even if the upperelastic member (244) is installed at an inside of the housing member(250), a bi-directionally moveable actuator can be configured.

Hereinafter, a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosurewill be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 27 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,and FIGS. 28, 29 and 30 are schematic view illustrating movement ofupper elastic member mounted at an upper side of a housing member of acamera module according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 27, a camera module according to a fourth exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure may include a PCB (310), a base(320), a bobbin (340), and a housing member (350), and the housingmember (350) may be integrally formed with a support protrusion (370).

The PCB (310) may be mounted with an image sensor (311) to form a floorsurface of the camera module.

The base (320) may be mounted with an IR (Infrared) cut-off filter (325)at a position corresponding to that of the image sensor (311), may becoupled to the housing member (350), and may support a bottom side ofthe housing member (350). The base (320) may be mounted with a separateterminal member to electrically conduct with the PCB (310), and may beintegrally formed with the terminal member using a surface electrode.Meanwhile, the base (320) may function as a sensor holder to protect theimage sensor (311), and in this case, a protrusion part may be formed toa bottom side direction along a lateral surface of the base (320).However, the protrusion part is not an essential part, and albeit notbeing illustrated in the drawings, a separate sensor holder may bearranged at a bottom surface of the base (320) to perform the role ofthe protrusion part.

Magnets (333) may be directly secured to the housing member (350,described later). When the magnets (333) are directly secured to thehousing member (350), the magnets (333) may be directly bonded to alateral surface or a corner area of the housing member(350).Furthermore, the magnets (333) may contact at an upper surface afirst fixation part (344 a) of an upper elastic member (344). When thehousing member (350) is made of a metal material, the cut-off effect ofmagnetic field can be more prominent if the number of surfaces of thehousing member (350) contacting the magnets (333) is great. Furthermore,at least more than two surfaces of the magnet (333) may contact thehousing member (350).

For example, when the magnet (333) takes a trapezoidal shape when viewedfrom a plan, the magnet (333) may contact at least more than 28 innerlateral surfaces of the housing member (350). Although the fourthexemplary embodiment illustrates that the magnets (333) are arranged atfour corner areas of the housing member (350), the magnets (333) may bearranged at four inner surfaces of the housing member (350).

A bottom elastic member (345) may be supported by the base (320) and/orby housing member (350), and an upper elastic member (344) may besupported by magnets (333) and/or by the housing member (350). At thistime, the upper elastic member (344) may be interposed between thehousing member (350) and the magnets (333), and the bottom elasticmember (345) may be interposed between the housing member (350) and thebase (320).

The bobbin (340) may be reciprocally mounted at an inside space of thehousing member (350) to a direction parallel to an optical axis. Thebobbin (340) may be mounted at a periphery with a coil unit (343) toenable an electrical interaction with the magnets (333). The bobbin(340) may include a lens barrel (342) mounted therein with at least onelens (342 a). The lens barrel (342) may be so formed as to be screwedinto the bobbin (340) as illustrated in FIG. 27. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the lens barrel (342) may bedirectly fixed to an inside of the bobbin (340) by other methods thanthe screwing method, or one sheet or more sheets of lenses (342 a) maybe integrally formed with bobbin (340) without the assistance of lensbarrel (342). The lens (342 a) may be formed with one sheet, or two ormore lenses may be arranged to form an optical system.

The bobbin (340) may be mounted at an upper surface and a bottom surfacewith upper and bottom elastic members (344, 345). The upper elasticmember (344) may be connected at one end to the bobbin (340) and may bearranged at the other end to a bottom side of the housing member (350,described later). The bottom elastic member (345) may be connected atone end to the bobbin (340) and connected at the other end to the base(320). To this end, the bobbin (340) may be formed at a bottom side witha protrusion (335 a) for coupling with the bottom elastic member (345),and a protrusion accommodation hole (345 a) may be formed at a positioncorresponding to that of the bottom elastic member (345), whereby thebottom elastic member (345) can be coupled.

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (344) may be coupled at one end toa first protrusion (334 a) formed at an upper surface of the bobbin(340), and connected at the other end to the magnets (333) and/orhousing member (350). To this end, a position corresponding to that ofthe upper elastic member (344) may be formed with a first protrusionaccommodation hole (344 a).

The upper elastic member (344) may include, as illustrated in FIG. 28, afirst fixation part (344 a) connected to the magnets (333) mounted at aninner side of the housing member (350) and/or a support protrusion (370,described later), a second fixation part (344 c) connected to the bobbin(340), and a connection part (344 b) configured to connect the first andsecond fixation parts (344 a, 344 c). At this time, the connection part(344 b) may take a shape of a predetermined pattern, the movement ofwhich supports the bobbin (340). Furthermore, the connection part (344b) may be so arranged as not to be interfered with a spacer (370,described later) and the housing member (350). The connection part (344b) performs an elasticity restoring function of the upper elastic member(344).

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 24, the connection part (344 b) may bea starting point of a staircase part (371), whereby the spacer member(360) and the connection part (344 c) are prevented from interferingwhile the bobbin (340) vertically moves. Alternatively, the connectionpart (344 b) may be spaced apart from the starting point of thestaircase part (371) at a predetermined distance.

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (344) may be spaced apart from anupper surface of an inner side of the housing member (350) at apredetermined distance in order to prevent from interfering with thehousing member (350) while the bobbin (340) vertically moves. Theconnection part (344 b) of the upper elastic member may be positioned ata position spaced apart from the magnet to a horizontal direction. Theconnection part (344 b) of the upper elastic member (344) may bepositioned at a position spaced apart from the magnet to a verticaldirection. Furthermore, the connection part (344 b) of the upper elasticmember may be positioned at a position spaced apart from the magnets toa diagonal direction, where the diagonal direction may include adiagonal direction relative to a horizontal direction, and a diagonaldirection relative to a vertical direction.

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (344) may include, as illustratedin FIG. 28, a first fixation part (344 a) fixed to the housing member(350) side, a second fixation part (344 c) connected to a bobbin (340)side, and a connection part (344 b) configured to connect the first andsecond fixation parts (344 a, 344 c).

Meantime, the first fixation part (344 a) may be formed longer than thesecond fixation part (344 c), and at least 28 pairs of connection parts(344 b) may be diagonally arranged, each spaced apart to a lengthwisedirection at a predetermined distance. At this time, the connection part(344 b) may take a predetermined pattern, whereby the bobbin (340) canbe supported. Furthermore, the connection part (344 b) may alsointegrally connect the first and second fixation parts (344 a, 344 c).

That is, the connection part (344 b) may be integrally connected at oneend to the first fixation part (344 a) and integrally connected at theother end to the second fixation part (344 c). The connection part (344b) may be also so arranged as not to interfere with the spacer (270,described later) and the housing member (350). The connection part (344b) may perform an elasticity restoring function of the upper elasticmember (344).

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 28, the connection part (344 b) maystart from a starting point of the support protrusion (370), whereby thesupport protrusion (370) and an inner surface of the housing member(350) can be prevented from interfering with the connection part (344 b)while the bobbin (340) vertically moves. Alternatively, the connectionpart (344 b) may be spaced apart from the starting point of the supportprotrusion (370) at a predetermined distance.

Furthermore, the first fixation part (344 a) may be fixed to the supportprotrusion (370) using a welding part (380). The present disclosure isnot limited thereto, and the support protrusion (370) and the firstfixation part (344 a) may be pressed and fixed while in asurface-contacted state, or may be fixed using an adhesive member suchas epoxy. Alternatively, the welding part (380) may be replaced with anadhesive member such as a double-sided tape, and may be replaced with anadhesive layer by coating with an adhesive agent such as epoxy. Whenthere is a need of an electromagnetic characteristic being considered,the adhesive agent may be replaced with a conductive adhesive agent.

Meantime, the upper elastic member (344) may be spaced apart from anupper surface of the housing member (350) at a predetermined distance inorder to prevent interference with the housing member (350) when thebobbin (340) vertically moves. To this end, the housing member (350) maybe formed at an upper side of an inner surface with theintegrally-formed support protrusion (370), the detailed configurationof which will be described later.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 28, the magnet (333) and theconnection part (344 b) may be spaced apart at a predetermined distance(g), whereby contact and interference of the upper elastic member (344)and the magnet (333) can be avoided even during ascent and descent ofthe bobbin (340) to enable a smooth movement of the bobbin (340), asillustrated in FIGS. 28, 29 and 30. The distance (g) may be formed to ahorizontal direction, a round direction, a vertical direction, asillustrated, or to a direction satisfying a combination thereof. Thatis, as illustrated in FIGS. 29 and 30, the connection part (344 b) needsto be distanced at all times even if the bobbin (340) moves.

Meantime, a height of the support protrusion (370) may be formed longerthan a rising stroke distance of the bobbin (340) to prevent theconnection part (344 b) of the upper elastic member (344) frominterfering with an inner surface of the housing member (350) while thebobbin (340) performs the ascending operation.

The bi-directional movement of the bobbin (340) may be elasticallysupported relative to an optical axis direction by the upper and bottomelastic members (344, 345) thus coupled. That is, the bobbin (340) maybe controlled in upward and downward movements about an initial positionspaced apart from the base (320) at a predetermined distance.

Meantime, the coil unit (343) may be provided as a ring-shaped coilblock insertedly coupled to a periphery of the bobbin (340). The coilunit (343) formed in the shape of a coil block may include a straightline surface (343 a) arranged at a position corresponding to that of themagnet (333) and a curved line surface (343 b) arranged at a positioncorresponding to that of an inner yoke and an accommodation groove(described later).

Alternatively, the coil block-shaped coil unit (343) may take an angledshape, or may be of an octagonal shape. That is, the coil unit (343) maybe formed with a straight line surface free from a curved line, wherethe shape of which is proposed in consideration of electromagneticaction with the oppositely-arranged magnet (333), and when a surfaceopposite to the magnet (333) is a plan, a surface of the facing coilunit (343) may be also a plan to thereby maximize the generation ofelectromagnetic force. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and a surface of the coil unit (343) and a surface of themagnet (333) may be all curved or plain, or one of the surface of thecoil unit (343) and the surface of the magnet (333) may be curved whilethe remaining surface may be plain.

Meantime, the bobbin (340) may include a first surface (340 a) flatlyformed on a surface corresponding to that of the straight line surface(343 a) to allow the coil unit (343) to be coupled to a periphery of thebobbin (340), and a second surface (340 b) formed in a round shape on asurface corresponding to that of the curved line surface (343 b).Furthermore, the coil unit (343) may be directly wound on the bobbin(340), and in this case, the first surface (340 a) may be formed with aprotrusion part (347) configured to prevent the coil unit (343) frombeing deviated to an optical axis direction of the coil unit (343),whereby the coil unit (343) can be prevented from being deviated from aninstallation position by the shock generated during the reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (340), or the arranged position of the coil unit(343) may be guided.

Furthermore, the bobbin (340) may be formed at a periphery with aplurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) forming a space part bybeing spaced apart from the coil unit (343) at a predetermined distance,where the plurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) may be insertedby an inner yoke (350 a) formed on the housing member (350). However,the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and a separate yoke maybe provided instead of the inner yoke (350 a). At this time, the housingmember (350) may be a yoke housing configured to function as a yoke.

The housing member (350) may be formed with a ferromagnetic body such assteel. Furthermore, the housing member (350) may be provided with anangled shape when viewed from an upper side in order to wrap the bobbin(340). At this time, the housing member (350) may take a square shape,as illustrated in FIG. 27, or an octagonal shape, albeit not beingillustrated.

Furthermore, when the housing member (350) takes an octagonal shape whenviewed from an upper side, and when a shape of the magnet (333) arrangedat a corner of the housing member (350) takes a trapezoidal shape whenviewed from an upper side, the magnetic field emitted from the corner ofthe housing member (350) can be minimized.

The housing member (350) may be integrally formed with an inner yoke(350 a) at a position corresponding to that of the accommodation groove,and one surface of the inner yoke (350 a) is spaced apart from the coilunit (343) at a predetermined distance, and the other surface of theinner yoke (350 a) may be spaced apart from the bobbin (340) at apredetermined distance. Furthermore, the inner yoke (350 a) and theaccommodation grooves (not shown) may be formed at four corner areas ofthe housing member (350). The inner yoke (350 a) may be bent inwardly toa direction parallel with an optical axis from an upper surface of thehousing member (350). The inner yoke (350 a) may be symmetrically formedwith a pair of escape grooves at a position near to the bent portion.The bent portion formed with the escape grooves may form a bottlenecksection, and interference of the inner yoke (350 a) and the bobbin (340)can be minimized during movement of the bobbin (340) by the sectionwhere the escape grooves are formed.

A distal end of the inner yoke (350 a) needs to be spaced apart from areference position at a predetermined distance from a floor surface ofthe accommodation groove, which is to prevent interference and contactbetween and with a distal end of the inner yoke and the floor surface ofthe accommodation grooves at a highest position during reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (340). Furthermore, the distal end of the inneryoke (350 a) may function as a stopper configured to restrain movementof the bobbin (340) to a section other than that of a designedspecification.

As illustrated in FIG. 28, the support protrusion (370) may beprotrusively and inwardly formed at an upper surface of the housingmember (350), where the term of inwardly indicates a bottom direction ofthe housing member (350) coupled by the PCB (310). That is, asillustrated in the drawing, the upper elastic member (344) is arrangedat an inside of the housing member (350), such that the supportprotrusion (370) is protruded to a direction facing an upper surface ofthe upper elastic member (344) to allow an end of the support protrusion(370) to be brought into contact with the upper surface of the upperelastic member (344).

Meantime, an end of the support protrusion (370) may be flatly provided,and may be partially curved. The end of the support protrusion (370) andthe upper surface of the upper elastic member (344) may be brought intocontact, and surface-contacted and/or line-contacted and/orspot-contacted. A position thus contacted may further include a weldingpart (380) or a coupling part. In this case, the coupling force betweenthe first fixation part (344 a) and the support protrusion (370) may befurther maintained.

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIGS. 28 and 29, an upper surface of thehousing member (350) may be integrally and protrusively formed withsupport protrusions (370). The support protrusions (370) may be mountedat a position near to four corner areas of the housing member (350).However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the supportprotrusions (370) may be formed at four surfaces. The supportprotrusions (370) are to distance the upper elastic member (344) fromthe housing member (350) at a predetermined space, such that thearranged position may be variably changed depending on design of thecamera module. This is to prevent the interference between the bobbinand the housing member when the bobbin moves downwards.

For example, the support protrusions (370) may be formed at angledsurface instead of corner areas. However, in view of the fact thatcorner areas are generally where there is a relatively sufficient spacethat is not interfered with other parts in the camera module, thesupport protrusions (370) is preferably arranged at corner areas.

The support protrusion (370) is preferably formed along with the housingmember (350) when the housing member (350) is formed. For example, whenthe housing member (350) is formed, it is possible to form the supportprotrusion (370) by pressing a position to be formed with the supportprotrusions (370) in a protrusively changed shape. The housing member(350) may function as a yoke by forming with a metal material, and whenthe support protrusions (370) are formed by press works, an externalportion at an upper surface formed with the support protrusion (370) ofthe housing member (350) may include a concaved recess portion asillustrated in FIGS. 30 and 6.

When the housing member (350) is injection molded, it is possible toform a shape of support protrusion (370) in a mold. When the supportprotrusion (370) is integrally formed with the housing member (350)instead of separate component, the number of parts can be reducedbecause of no need of using a separate spacer. Furthermore, the assemblyprocess can be simplified because of omission of assembly process forspacer.

FIGS. 28, 29 and 30 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member (344) mounted at an upper side of a housing member of acamera module according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure, where an end of the support protrusion (370) tightlycontacts an upper surface of the upper elastic member (344).

At an initial position, the upper elastic member (344) is such that thefirst fixation part (344 a) coupled to the housing member, the secondfixation part (344 c) connected to the bobbin (340) and the connectionpart (344 b) maintain a horizontal state as illustrated in FIG. 28, andwhen the bobbin (340) ascends as illustrated in FIG. 29, the firstfixation part (344 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the secondfixation part (344 c) connected to the bobbin (340) and the connectionpart (344 b) to rise upwards of the support protrusion (370). In thiscase, there is generated no interference between the housing member(350) and the upper elastic member (344) because the first fixation part(344 a) is fixed in position by coupling with the support protrusion(370) and only the connection part (344 b) moves upwards.

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 30, when the bobbin (340) descendsto a direction of the image sensor (311, see FIG. 27), the firstfixation part (344 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the secondfixation part (344 c) connected to the bobbin (340) and the connectionpart (344 c) to descend downwards of the support protrusion (370).

In this case, the connection part (344 c) and the second fixation part(344 c) move to a space formed by the support protrusion (370) toprevent generation of interference between the housing member (350) andthe upper elastic member (344). Thus, the bobbin (240) can smoothlyperform the ascent and descent movement even without a separateconfiguration of spacer. Furthermore, the support protrusion (370) mayhave at least a height more than a stroke distance of the bobbin (340)in order to have the movement of FIGS. 30 and 6.

Meantime, FIGS. 7 to 11 are drawings to exemplify various modificationsof a camera module according to the first exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure. At this time, the explanation of a camera moduleaccording to the fourth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosuremay be inferred and applied from the various modifications of cameramodule according to the first exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

According to the fourth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,the shape of an upper surface of the housing member (350) may be changedwithout a separate spacer part to form the integrally-formed supportprotrusion (370) in a space part inside the housing member (350),whereby an assembly process for spacer assembly can be omitted tosimplify the overall assembly process. Furthermore, the effect ofreducing the manufacturing cost due to reduced number of parts can beaccomplished, and problems such as erroneous operation caused byinevitable inflow of foreign objects into a connected gap between partscan be solved.

Still furthermore, the upper elastic member (344) can be installed at aninner space part through changed shape of an upper surface of thehousing member (350) to advantageously accomplish the productminiaturization because of the reduced height of the camera module.

Hereinafter, a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure willbe described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 31 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a camera moduleaccording to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, andFIGS. 32, 33 and 34 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member during movement of bobbin of a camera module according toa fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 31, a camera module according to the fifth exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure may include a PCB (410), a base(420), a bobbin (440), and a housing member (450), and the housingmember (450) may be installed therein with a spacer (470).

The PCB (410) may be mounted with an image sensor (411) to form a floorsurface of the camera module.

The base (420) may be mounted with an IR (Infrared) cut-off filter (425)at a position corresponding to that of the image sensor (411), may becoupled to the housing member (450), and may support a bottom side ofthe housing member (450). The base (420) may be mounted with a separateterminal member to electrically conduct with the PCB (410), and may beintegrally formed with the terminal member using a surface electrode.Meanwhile, the base (420) may function as a sensor holder to protect theimage sensor (411), and in this case, a protrusion part may be formed toa bottom side direction along a lateral surface of the base (420).However, the protrusion part is not an essential part, and albeit notbeing illustrated in the drawings, a separate sensor holder may bearranged at a bottom surface of the base (420) to perform the role ofthe protrusion part.

Magnets (433) may be directly secured to the housing member (450,described later). When the magnets (433) are directly secured to thehousing member (450), the magnets (433) may be directly bonded to alateral surface or a corner area of the housing member(450).Furthermore, the magnets (433) may contact at an upper surface afirst fixation part (444 a) of an upper elastic member (444, describedlater). When the housing member (450) is made of a metal material, thecut-off effect of magnetic field can be more prominent if the number ofsurfaces of the housing member (450) contacting the magnets (433) isgreat. Furthermore, at least more than two surfaces of the magnet (433)may contact the housing member (450).

For example, when the magnet (433) takes a trapezoidal shape when viewedfrom a plan, the magnet (433) may contact at least more than 33 innerlateral surfaces of the housing member (450). Although the fifthexemplary embodiment illustrates that the magnets (433) are arranged atfour corner areas of the housing member (450), the magnets (433) may bearranged at four inner surfaces of the housing member (450).

A bottom elastic member (445) may be supported by the base (420) and/orby housing member (450), and an upper elastic member (444) may besupported by magnets (433) and/or by the spacer (470). At this time, theupper elastic member (444) may be interposed between the spacer (470)and the magnets (433), and the bottom elastic member (445) may beinterposed between the housing member (450) and the base (420).

The bobbin (440) may be reciprocally mounted at an inner space of thehousing member (450) to a direction parallel to an optical axis. Thebobbin (440) may be mounted at a periphery with a coil unit (443) toenable an electrical interaction with the magnets (433). The bobbin(440) may include a lens barrel (442) mounted therein with at least onelens (442 a). The lens barrel (442) may be so formed as to be screwedinto the bobbin (440) as illustrated in FIG. 31. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto, and the lens barrel (442) may bedirectly fixed to an inside of the bobbin (440) by other methods thanthe screwing method, or one sheet or more sheets of lenses (442 a) maybe integrally formed with bobbin (440) without the assistance of lensbarrel (442). The lens (442 a) may be formed with one sheet, or two ormore lenses may be arranged to form an optical system.

The bobbin (440) may be mounted at an upper surface and a bottom surfacewith upper and bottom elastic members (444, 445). The upper elasticmember (444) may be connected at one end to the bobbin (440) and may bearranged at the other end to a bottom side of the housing member (450,described later). The bottom elastic member (445) may be connected atone end to the bobbin (440) and connected at the other end to the base(420). To this end, the bobbin (440) may be formed at a bottom side witha protrusion (435 a) for coupling with the bottom elastic member (445),and a protrusion accommodation hole (445 a) may be formed at a positioncorresponding to that of the bottom elastic member (445).

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (444) may be coupled at one end toa first protrusion (434 a) formed at an upper surface of the bobbin(440), and connected at the other end to the magnets (433) and/or thespacer. To this end, a position corresponding to that of the upperelastic member (444) may be formed with a first protrusion accommodationhole (444 a).

The upper elastic member (444) may include, as illustrated in FIG. 32, afirst fixation part (444 a) connected to the magnets (433) mounted at aninner side of the housing member (450) and/or the spacer (470, describedlater), a second fixation part (444 c) connected to the bobbin (440),and a connection part (444 b) configured to connect the first and secondfixation parts (444 a, 444 c).

The first fixation part (444 a) may be formed longer than the secondfixation part (444 c), and at least 32 pairs of connection parts (444 b)may be diagonally and lengthwise formed each connection part beingspaced apart at a predetermined distance.

At this time, the connection part (444 b) may take a shape of apredetermined pattern, the movement of which supports the bobbin (440).Furthermore, the connection part (444 b) may integrally connect firstand second fixation parts (444 a, 444 c). That is, the connection part(444 b) may be integrally connected at one end to the first fixationpart (444 a) and connected at the other end to the second fixation part(444 c).

The connection part (444 b) may be also so arranged as not to interferewith the spacer (470, described later) and the housing member (450). Theconnection part (444 b) may perform an elasticity restoring function ofthe upper elastic member (444).

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 32, the connection part (444 b) maystart from a starting point of the spacer (470), whereby the spacer(470) and the connection part (444 b) can be prevented from interferingwhile the bobbin (440) vertically moves. Alternatively, the connectionpart (444 b) may be spaced apart from the starting point of the spacer(470) at a predetermined distance.

Furthermore, the upper elastic member (444) may be spaced apart from anupper surface of an inner side of the housing member (450) at apredetermined distance in order to prevent from interfering with thehousing member (450) while the bobbin (440) vertically moves. Theconnection part (444 b) of the upper elastic member may be positioned ata position spaced apart from the magnet (433) to a horizontal direction.The connection part (444 b) of the upper elastic member (444) may bepositioned at a position spaced apart from the magnets to a verticaldirection. Furthermore, the connection part (444 b) of the upper elasticmember may be positioned at a position spaced apart from the magnets(433) to a diagonal direction, where the diagonal direction may includea diagonal direction relative to a horizontal direction, and a diagonaldirection relative to a vertical direction.

To this end, the spacer (470) having a predetermined height is mountedat an inner surface of the housing member (450), and the first fixationpart (444 a) of the upper elastic member (444) may be interposed betweenthe spacer (470) and the magnets (433).

The spacer (470) may be first assembled and coupled to the housingmember (450), and then to the upper elastic member (444). The spacer(470) may be formed with a ferromagnetic body such as steel to maximizethe efficiency of the electromagnetic force. Furthermore, the spacer(470) may be formed with a metal material of a plate shape with a verythin thickness. That is, the spacer (470) functions to press and supportthe first fixation part (444 a) and to distance an inner surface of thehousing member (450) at a predetermined space, such that no separatestaircase part is required. Thus, the spacer (470) may have apredetermined thickness.

Furthermore, a part of the spacer (470) may include an escape sectionnot to interfere with the connection part (444 b) of the upper elasticmember (444). That is, the spacer (470) may include an escape structureat a place near the connection part (444 b) in order to be horizontallydistanced from the connection part (444 b) at a predetermined space.

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIGS. 32, 33 and 34, the spacer (470) maybe tightly fixed by the first fixation part (444 a) and a welding part(480). When the spacer (470) and the upper elastic member (444) areassembled, the upper elastic member (444) can be minimized indeformation thereof. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and the welding part (480) may be omitted. That is, an uppersurface of the spacer (470) may be tightly bonded to an inner surface ofthe housing member (450), a floor surface opposite thereto may tightlybond the first fixation part (444 a) of the upper elastic member (444)and a floor surface of the first fixation part (444 a) may be tightlybonded to an upper surface of the magnet (433). Furthermore, it may bealso possible to fix by grasping the upper elastic member (444) usingpressure formed through the coupling between the housing member (450)and the base (420).

Alternatively, the welding part (480) may be replaced with an adhesivemember such as a double-sided tape, and may be replaced with an adhesivelayer by coating with an adhesive agent such as epoxy. When there is aneed of an electromagnetic characteristic being considered, the adhesiveagent may be replaced with a conductive adhesive agent.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 32, the magnet (433) and theconnection part (444 b) may be spaced apart at a predetermined distance(g), whereby contact and interference of the upper elastic member (444)and the magnet (433) can be avoided even during ascent and descent ofthe bobbin (440) to enable a smooth movement of the bobbin (440), asillustrated in FIGS. 32, 33 and 34. The distance (g) may be formed to ahorizontal direction, a round direction, a vertical direction, asillustrated, or to a direction satisfying a combination thereof. Thatis, as illustrated in FIGS. 33 and 34, the connection part (444 b) needsto be distanced from the magnets (433) at all times even if the bobbin(440) moves.

Meantime, a height of the spacer (470) may be formed longer than arising stroke distance of the bobbin (440) to prevent the connectionpart (444 b) of the upper elastic member (444) from interfering with aninner surface of the housing member (450) while the bobbin (440)performs the ascending operation.

The bi-directional movement of the bobbin (440) may be elasticallysupported relative to an optical axis direction by the upper and bottomelastic members (444, 445) thus coupled. That is, the bobbin (440) maybe controlled in upward and downward movements about an initial positionspaced apart from the base (420) at a predetermined distance.

Meantime, a coil unit (443) may be provided as a ring-shaped coil blockinsertedly coupled to a periphery of the bobbin (440). The coil unit(443) formed in the shape of a coil block may include a straight linesurface (443 a) arranged at a position corresponding to that of themagnet (433) and a curved line surface (443 b) arranged at a positioncorresponding to that of an inner yoke and an accommodation groove(described later).

Alternatively, the coil block-shaped coil unit (443) may take an angledshape, or may be of an octagonal shape. That is, the coil unit (443) maybe formed with a straight line surface free from a curved line, wherethe shape of which is proposed in consideration of electromagneticaction with the oppositely-arranged magnet (433), and when a surfaceopposite to the magnet (433) is a plan, a surface of the facing coilunit (443) may be also a plan to thereby maximize the generation ofelectromagnetic force. However, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and a surface of the coil unit (443) and a surface of themagnet (433) may be all curved or plain, or one of the surface of thecoil unit (443) and the surface of the magnet (433) may be curved whilethe remaining surface may be plain.

Meantime, the bobbin (440) may include a first surface (440 a) flatlyformed on a surface corresponding to that of the straight line surface(443 a) to allow the coil unit (443) to be coupled to a periphery of thebobbin (440), and a second surface (440 b) formed in a round shape on asurface corresponding to that of the curved line surface (443 b).Furthermore, the coil unit (443) may be directly wound on the bobbin(440), and in this case, the first surface (440 a) may be formed with aprotrusion part (447) configured to prevent the coil unit (443) frombeing deviated to an optical axis direction of the coil unit (443),whereby the coil unit (443) can be prevented from being deviated from aninstallation position by the shock generated during the reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (440), or the arranged position of the coil unit(443) may be guided.

Furthermore, the bobbin (440) may be formed at a periphery with aplurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) forming a space part bybeing spaced apart from the coil unit (443) at a predetermined distance,where the plurality of accommodation grooves (not shown) may be insertedby an inner yoke (450 a) formed on the housing member (450). However,the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and a separate yoke maybe provided instead of the inner yoke (450 a). At this time, the housingmember (450) may be a yoke housing configured to function as a yoke.

The housing member (450) may be formed with a ferromagnetic body such assteel. Furthermore, the housing member (450) may be provided with anangled shape when viewed from an upper side in order to wrap the bobbin(440). At this time, the housing member (450) may take a square shape,as illustrated in FIG. 31, or an octagonal shape, albeit not beingillustrated.

Furthermore, when the housing member (450) takes an octagonal shape whenviewed from an upper side, and when a shape of the magnet (433) arrangedat a corner of the housing member (450) takes a trapezoidal shape whenviewed from an upper side, the magnetic field emitted from the corner ofthe housing member (450) can be minimized.

The housing member (450) may be integrally formed with the inner yoke(450 a) at a position corresponding to that of the accommodation groove,and one surface of the inner yoke (450 a) is spaced apart from the coilunit (443) at a predetermined distance, and the other surface of theinner yoke (450 a) may be spaced apart from the bobbin (440) at apredetermined distance. Furthermore, the inner yoke (450 a) and theaccommodation grooves (not shown) may be formed at four corner areas ofthe housing member (450). The inner yoke (450 a) may be bent inwardly toa direction parallel with an optical axis from an upper surface of thehousing member (450). The inner yoke (450 a) may be symmetrically formedwith a pair of escape grooves at a position near to the bent portion.The bent portion formed with the escape grooves may form a bottlenecksection, and interference of the inner yoke (450 a) and the bobbin (440)can be minimized during movement of the bobbin (440) by the sectionwhere the escape grooves are formed.

A distal end of the inner yoke (450 a) needs to be spaced apart from areference position at a predetermined distance from a floor surface ofthe accommodation groove, which is to prevent interference and contactbetween and with a distal end of the inner yoke and the floor surface ofthe accommodation grooves at a highest position during reciprocalmovement of the bobbin (440). Furthermore, the distal end of the inneryoke (450 a) may function as a stopper configured to restrain movementof the bobbin (440) to a section other than that of a designedspecification.

FIGS. 32, 33 and 34 are schematic view illustrating movement of upperelastic member (444) during movement of bobbin of a camera moduleaccording to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

At an initial position, the upper elastic member (444) is such that thefirst and second fixation parts (444 a, 444 c) and the connection part(444 b) maintain a horizontal state as illustrated in FIG. 32, and whenthe bobbin (440) ascends as illustrated in FIG. 33, the first fixationpart (444 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the second fixationpart (444 c) connected to the bobbin (440) and the connection part (444b) to rise upwards of the spacer (470). In this case, interference canbe prevented because an upper surface at an inner side of the housingmember (450) and the upper elastic member (444) are distanced by thespacer (470).

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 34, when the bobbin (440) descendsto a direction of the image sensor (411, see FIG. 31), the firstfixation part (444 a) maintains a fixed position to allow the secondfixation part (444 c) connected to the bobbin (440) and the connectionpart (444 c) to descend downwards of the spacer (470).

At this time, the first fixation part (444 a) of the upper elasticmember (444) descends downwards by the coupling with the spacer (470) ina fixed state, and because the connection part (444 c) of the upperelastic member (444) and the magnets (433) are spaced apart at apredetermined distance (g) from each other as illustrated in FIG. 32,there is generated no interference between the magnets (433) and theupper elastic member (444) even the bobbin (430) descends.

According to the fifth exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,the spacer (470) can be installed at an inner side of the housing member(450) to advantageously to reduce the height of the camera module. Thatis, the spacer (470) can be installed at an inner space of the housingmember (450) to dispense with assembly of a separate top housing memberat an exposed upper side of the housing member (450) to enable aminiaturization of the camera module.

Still furthermore, the spacer (470) is made of steel material tomaximize the efficiency of electromagnetic interaction between the coilunit (443) wound on the bobbin and the magnets (433) for performing theauto focusing function of the camera module.

Still furthermore, because the spacer (470) is first installed at aninner side of the housing member (450), and then the magnets (433) areassembled after the spacer (470) and the upper elastic member (444) aresecured, the number of damaged parts during the assembly process can bereduced by minimizing the damage to the upper elastic member (444) atthe time of assembly.

Although the above exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure haveexplained and illustrated all the constituent parts that are coupledinto one body to operate, the present disclosure is not always limitedthereto. That is, one or more the constituent parts may be selectivelycoupled to operate as long as the combination is within the scope of thepresent disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure.As used herein, it will be understood that the terms “comprises” and/or“comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence ofstated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but donot preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Itwill be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonlyused dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and thepresent disclosure, and will not be interpreted in an idealized oroverly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The previous description of the present disclosure is provided to enableany person skilled in the art to make or use the inventive disclosure.Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein maybe applied to other variations without departing from the spirit orscope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended tolimit the examples described herein, but is to be accorded the widestscope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosedherein.

The present disclosure has been made to solve the foregoing problems ofthe prior art and therefore an object of certain embodiments of thepresent disclosure is to provide a camera module improved in structureconfigured to reduce the number of parts by using a bi-directionallydriven actuator.

The present disclosure is to solve at least one or more of the aboveproblems and/or disadvantages in whole or in part and to provide atleast advantages described hereinafter. In order to achieve at least theabove objects, in whole or in part, and in accordance with the purposesof the present disclosure, as embodied and broadly described, and in onegeneral aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a cameramodule, the camera module comprising: a PCB (Printed Circuit Board)mounted with an image sensor; a housing member arranged at an uppersurface of the PCB; a bobbin movably positioned at an inner side of thehousing member; an upper elastic member connected to an upper surface ofthe housing member and to an upper surface of the bobbin, and a spaceforming part formed at one side of the housing member to provide amoving space to the upper elastic member when the bobbin makes arelatively vertical movement to the housing member.

In another general aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acamera module, the camera module comprising: a PCB (Printed CircuitBoard) mounted with an image sensor; a bobbin arranged at an upper sideof the PCB, upper and bottom surfaces of which being respectivelyconnected to each side of upper and bottom elastic members; a housingmember arranged at an upper surface of the PCB and mounted at an innerspace with the bobbin; and a spacer member mounted at an inner surfaceof the housing member to provide a moving space to the upper elasticmember when the housing and the upper elastic member are coupled toallow the bobbin to vertically move relative to the housing member.

A camera module according to a first exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may include a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mounted with animage sensor; a bobbin arranged at an upper surface of the PCB, upperand bottom sides of which being respectively connected to each side ofupper and bottom elastic members; a housing member arranged at an upperside of the PCB to support a reciprocal movement of the bobbin by beingsupported at one side of the upper elastic member to an upper surface;and a support protrusion integrally formed at an upper surface of thehousing member to support a floor surface of the upper elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may beprotrusively formed at four corner areas of the housing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may have aheight greater than a vertical movement stroke of the bobbin.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may take any oneshape of a round, a square and a triangle.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may be spacedapart at a predetermined distance from a corner area connected to alateral wall of the housing member, or may be tightly contacted to acorner area connected to a lateral wall of the housing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may include afirst fixation part fixed to a housing member side, a second fixationpart fixed to a bobbin side, and a connection part configured to connectthe first and second fixation parts.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the first fixation part may besupported at a floor surface by the support protrusion.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the first fixation part may be formedwith a groove portion at a position corresponding to that of the supportprotrusion.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion and the grooveportion may be fixedly coupled by any one of adhesion, heat-seal andwelding methods.

The camera module according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may further comprise a base arranged at an upper side of thePCB, and a holder member coupled to the base, mounted with a pluralityof magnets and coupled by the other end of the bottom elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be formed at foursides with magnet installation holes inserted by magnets, each magnet ofsame size.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be fixed at afloor surface to the base, and coupled at an upper surface to thehousing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the bobbin may be formed at an innersurface with a lens barrel mounted with at least one lens.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the housing member may be formed with aferromagnetic body, and may form an external look of the camera moduleby being coupled to the base.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the camera module may further comprisea ring-shaped coil block coupled to the bobbin by being inserted to aperiphery of the bobbin.

A camera module according to a first exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may further comprise a cover member configured to support anupper side of the upper elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the cover member may be protrusivelyformed at an inner surface opposite to the upper elastic member with aplurality of support bosses.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support bosses may be coaxiallyarranged with the support protrusion.

The camera module according to a second exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure may include a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mountedwith an image sensor; a bobbin arranged at an upper surface of the PCB,upper and bottom sides of which being respectively connected to eachside of upper and bottom elastic members; a housing member arranged atan upper side of the PCB and mounted with the bobbin at an inner spacepart; and a cover member arranged at an upper side of the housing memberand fixed at an inner surface by the upper elastic member to allow beingspaced apart from an upper surface of the housing member at apredetermined distance.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the cover member may include a supportprotrusion coupled by the upper elastic member at an inner surfaceopposite to the housing member, and a staircase part formed near thesupport protrusion.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may furtherinclude a first through hole having a shape corresponding to that of thesupport protrusion.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a first coupling part formed by any oneof adhesion, heat-seal and welding methods may be formed at a couplingposition between the support protrusion and the first through hole.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may include afirst fixation part formed with the first through hole fixed to a covermember side, a second fixation part fixed to a bobbin side, and aconnection part configured to connect the first and second fixationparts.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the housing member may further includea second through hole having a shape corresponding to that of thesupport protrusion.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may be coupledto a first through hole formed at a position corresponding to that ofthe upper elastic member and a second through hole formed at a positioncorresponding to that of the housing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a second coupling part formed by anyone of adhesion, heat-seal and welding methods may be formed at acoupling position between the support protrusion and the second throughhole.

Preferably, but not necessarily, each of the first and second throughholes and support protrusion may take a round shape at a cross-sectionto a direction perpendicular to a coupling direction.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a distance between the upper elasticmember and the housing member may be formed to be longer than a distancebetween rising stroke and falling stroke of bobbin.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusions may beprotrusively formed at four corner areas at an upper side of an innersurface of the cover member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a shape of a plain surface on thesupport protrusion may take any one shape of a round, a square and atriangle.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may be spacedapart at a predetermined distance from a corner area connected to alateral wall of the cover member.

The camera module according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may further comprise a base arranged at an upper side of aPCB, and a holder member coupled to the base, mounted with a pluralityof magnets and coupled by the other end of the bottom elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be formed at foursides thereof with magnet installation holes inserted by magnets, eachmagnet of same size.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be fixed at afloor surface to the base, and coupled at an upper surface to thehousing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the bobbin may be formed at an innersurface with a lens barrel mounted with at least one lens.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the housing member may be formed with aferromagnetic body, and may form an external look of the camera moduleby being coupled to the base.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the camera module may further comprisea ring-shaped coil block coupled to the bobbin by being inserted to aperiphery of the bobbin.

A camera module according to a third exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may include a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mounted with animage sensor; a bobbin arranged at an upper surface of the PCB, upperand bottom surfaces of which being respectively connected to each sideof upper and bottom elastic members; a housing member arranged at anupper surface of the PCB and mounted at an inner space with the bobbin;and a spacer member mounted at an inner surface of the housing member,fixed at an inner surface by the upper elastic member and formed near afixed position of the upper elastic member with a staircase part to forma space part configured to allow the upper elastic member to movetherein.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the spacer member may be any one ofinjection moldable resin material and metal material.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the spacer member may be coupled to thehousing member after the upper elastic member is assembled.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the spacer member may be formed at aninner surface opposite to the housing member with a support protrusioncoupled by the upper elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may furtherinclude a through hole having a shape corresponding to that of thesupport protrusion.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a coupling part formed by any one ofadhesion and welding methods may be formed at a coupling positionbetween the support protrusion and the through hole.

Preferably, but not necessarily, each of the support protrusion and thethrough hole may take a round shape at a cross-section to a directionperpendicular to a coupling direction.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may include afirst fixation part formed with a through hole fixed to a spacer memberside, a second fixation part fixed to a bobbin side, and a connectionpart configured to connect the first and second fixation parts.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may be formed tobe longer than a distance between rising stroke and falling stroke ofbobbin.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusions may beprotrusively formed at four corner areas at an upper side of an innersurface of the spacer member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a shape of a plain surface on thesupport protrusion may take any one shape of a round, a square and atriangle.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may be spacedapart at a predetermined distance from a corner area connected to alateral wall of the spacer member.

The camera module according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may comprise a base arranged at an upper side of a PCB.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the bobbin may be formed at an innersurface with a lens barrel mounted with at least one lens.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the housing member may be formed with aferromagnetic body, and may form an external look of the camera moduleby being coupled to the base.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the camera module may further comprisea ring-shaped coil block coupled to the bobbin by being inserted to aperiphery of the bobbin.

A camera module according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure may include: a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mountedwith an image sensor; a bobbin arranged at an upper side of the PCB,upper and bottom surfaces of which being respectively connected to eachside of upper and bottom elastic members; a housing member arranged atan upper side of the PCB to install the upper and bottom elastic membersand bobbin in an inner space thereof; and a support protrusionintegrally formed with an inner surface opposite to the upper elasticmember at an upper surface of the housing member to support an upperside of the upper elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may beprotrusively formed at four corner areas of the housing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion has a heightgreater than a vertical movement stroke of the bobbin.

Preferably, but not necessarily, a shape of a plain surface on thesupport protrusion may take any one shape of a round, a square and atriangle.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the support protrusion may be spacedapart at a predetermined distance from a corner area connected to alateral wall of the cover member, or tightly contact a corner areaconnected to a lateral wall of the housing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may include afirst fixation part fixed to the support protrusion, a second fixationpart fixed to a bobbin side, and a connection part configured to connectthe first and second fixation parts.

A camera module according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure may further include a welding part formed at aposition mutually contacted by the support protrusion and the firstfixation part.

A camera module according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure may further include a base arranged at an upper sideof the PCB, and a holder member coupled to the base, mounted with aplurality of magnets and coupled by the other end of the bottom elasticmember.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be mounted atfour corner areas with magnets.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be coupled at afloor surface to the base, and at an upper surface to the housingmember.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the bobbin may be formed at an innersurface with a lens barrel mounted with at least one lens.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the housing member may be formed with aferromagnetic body, and may form an external look of the camera moduleby being coupled to the base.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the camera module may further comprisea ring-shaped coil block coupled to the bobbin by being inserted to aperiphery of the bobbin.

A camera module according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure may include: a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mountedwith an image sensor; a bobbin arranged at an upper side of the PCB,upper and bottom surfaces of which being respectively connected to eachside of upper and bottom elastic members; a housing member arranged atan upper side of the PCB to install the bobbin in an inner spacethereof; and a spacer of metal material arranged at an inner surface ofthe housing member, surface-contacted at an upper surface by the housingmember, and surface-contacted at a bottom surface by an upper surface ofthe upper elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the spacer may be formed with a steelmaterial.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the spacer may be welded to an uppersurface of the upper elastic member after first being coupled to thehousing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the spacer may take a shape from one ofa board shape and a plate shape.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may include afirst fixation part fixed to a housing member side, a second fixationpart fixed to a bobbin side, and a connection part configured to connectthe first and second fixation parts, and the spacer may be welded to anupper surface of the first fixation part.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the connection part may be so arrangedas not to interfere with the spacer and the housing member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the thickness of the spacer may bethicker than a distance between a rising stroke and a falling stroke ofthe bobbin.

A camera module according to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure may further include a base arranged at an upper side of thePCB, and a holder member coupled to the base, mounted with a pluralityof magnets and coupled by the other end of the bottom elastic member.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper elastic member may be formedon any one upper surface of a bottom surface of a spacer, a holdermember and a magnet.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the holder member may be coupled at afloor surface to the base, and at an upper surface to the housingmember.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the bobbin may be formed at an innersurface with a lens barrel mounted with at least one lens.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the housing member may be formed with aferromagnetic body, and may form an external look of the camera moduleby being coupled to the base.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the camera module may further comprisea ring-shaped coil block coupled to the bobbin by being inserted to aperiphery of the bobbin.

The camera module according to the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure has an advantageous effect in that a plurality of supportprotrusions configured to support an upper elastic member is integrallyformed at an upper side of a housing member to obtain a stroke spaceconfigured to bi-directionally move a bi-directionally driven actuatorto dispense with a separate spacer between the housing member and theupper elastic member, whereby the number of parts can be reduced tosubsequently reduce the number of assembly processes and manufacturingcost.

Another advantageous effect is that a spacer can be mounted at an innerspace part of a housing member through a camera module according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure to reduce a height of thecamera module and to accomplish the miniaturization of a product.Furthermore, assemblage can be improved because magnets are mounted bycoupling a housing member after first coupling an upper elastic memberto a support protrusion integrally formed with a spacer, and other partsare assembled thereafter. Still furthermore, the spacer is formed longerthan a stroke distance of a bobbin, whereby interference with otherparts can be prevented even during the vertical movement of the bobbin.

Still another advantageous effect is that the upper elastic member canbe mounted being spaced apart from an inner upper surface of the housingmember at a predetermined distance by magnets mounted at an innersurface of the spacer and the housing member and the spacer to preventthe upper elastic member from interfering with the housing memberthrough the camera module according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure. Furthermore, the spacer is formed with a steel tomaximize an efficiency of electromagnetic interaction between coil blockwound on a bobbin and the magnet for performance of focusing function ofthe camera module.

Any reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” “example embodiment,” etc., means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of such phrases in various places in the specification arenot necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with any embodiment, it is submitted that it is within thepurview of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, orcharacteristic in connection with other ones of the embodiments.

Although embodiments have been described with reference to a number ofillustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerousother modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled inthe art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles ofthis disclosure. More particularly, various variations and modificationsare possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subjectcombination arrangement within the scope of the disclosure, the drawingsand the appended claims. In addition to variations and modifications inthe component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also beapparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A VCM (Voice Coil Motor) comprising: a housingcomprising an upper plate and a lateral plate extending from the upperplate; a bobbin disposed in the housing; a coil disposed on the bobbin;a magnet facing the coil and disposed between the coil and the lateralplate of the housing; an upper elastic member comprising a first fixingpart disposed between the upper plate of the housing and the magnet, asecond fixing part coupled with the bobbin, and a connection partconnecting the first fixing part and the second fixing part; and adiscrete member disposed between the first fixing part of the upperelastic member and the upper plate of the housing, wherein the magnet isdisposed on the lateral plate of the housing, wherein the first fixingpart of the upper elastic member is spaced apart from the upper plate ofthe housing by the discrete member, and wherein the connection part ofthe upper elastic member is spaced apart from the magnet.
 2. The VCM ofclaim 1, wherein the discrete member comprises a spacer separatelyformed with the housing and disposed on a lower surface of the upperplate of the housing.
 3. The VCM of claim 2, wherein the connection partof the upper elastic member is overlapped with the magnet in a directionof an optical axis.
 4. The VCM of claim 2, wherein the connection partof the upper elastic member is spaced apart from the spacer in adirection of an optical axis.
 5. The VCM of claim 2, wherein the spacercomprises a support protrusion protruding from a lower surface of thespacer, and wherein the first fixing part comprises a hole coupled withthe support protrusion.
 6. The VCM of claim 5, wherein an upper surfaceof the first fixing part is disposed on the lower surface of the spacer,and wherein a lower surface of the first fixing part is spaced apartfrom an upper surface of the magnet.
 7. The VCM of claim 5, wherein alower surface of the support protrusion is disposed on an upper surfaceof the magnet.
 8. The VCM of claim 5, wherein the spacer comprises alateral wall extending from a lower surface of the spacer along thelateral plate of the housing, and wherein the support protrusion of thespacer is spaced apart from the lateral wall of the spacer.
 9. The VCMof claim 5, wherein the spacer comprises a recess recessed from thelower surface of the spacer, and wherein the recess of the spacer isdisposed at a position corresponding with that of the connection part ofthe upper elastic member.
 10. The VCM of claim 1, wherein the discretemember comprises a support protrusion integrally formed with the upperplate of the housing, and a lower surface of the support protrusion isdisposed at a position lower than that of a lower surface of the upperplate, and wherein the first fixing part of the upper elastic member isfixed between an upper surface of the magnet and the lower surface ofthe support protrusion.
 11. A VCM (Voice Coil Motor) comprising: ahousing comprising an upper plate and a lateral plate extending from theupper plate; a bobbin disposed in the housing; a coil disposed on thebobbin; a magnet facing the coil and disposed between the coil and thelateral plate of the housing; and an upper elastic member comprising afirst fixing part disposed between the upper plate of the housing andthe magnet, a second fixing part coupled with the bobbin, and aconnection part connecting the first fixing part and the second fixingpart, wherein the magnet is disposed on the lateral plate of thehousing, wherein the housing comprises a support protrusion integrallyformed with the upper plate, and a lower surface of the supportprotrusion is spaced apart from the upper plate of the housing, andwherein the first fixing part of the upper elastic member is fixedbetween an upper surface of the magnet and the lower surface of thesupport protrusion.
 12. The VCM of claim 11, wherein the lower surfaceof the support protrusion is disposed at a position lower than that ofthe lower surface of the upper plate, and wherein the connecting part ofthe upper elastic member is spaced apart from the upper plate of thehousing.
 13. The VCM of claim 11, wherein the connecting part of theupper elastic member is spaced apart from the magnet.
 14. The VCM ofclaim 11, wherein an area of the upper surface of the magnet is greaterthan an area of the lower surface of the support protrusion.
 15. The VCMof claim 11, wherein the lateral plate extends from an outer edge of theupper plate, wherein the housing comprises an inner yoke extending froman inner edge of the upper plate, wherein the coil is disposed on anouter lateral surface of the bobbin, wherein the bobbin comprises agroove formed on the outer lateral surface of the bobbin, and wherein aportion of the inner yoke is disposed in the groove of the bobbin andbetween the coil and the bobbin.
 16. The VCM of claim 15, wherein theconnecting part of the upper elastic member is disposed between thesupport protrusion and the inner yoke.
 17. The VCM of claim 11, whereinan upper surface of the first fixing part of the upper elastic membercontacts with the lower surface of the support protrusion.
 18. The VCMof claim 11, wherein a lower surface of the fixing part of the upperelastic member contacts with the upper surface of the magnet.
 19. TheVCM of claim 11, wherein an upper surface of the first fixing part ofthe upper elastic member is fixed to the lower surface of the supportportion by an adhesive.
 20. A camera module, comprising: a PCB (PrintedCircuit Board); an image sensor disposed on the PCB; the VCM of claim 11disposed on the PCB; and a lens coupled with the bobbin of the VCM.